I imagine this is no more spectacular than the oft quoted stories
about Working Class Manchester, before the old 'slums' were cleared.
It was possible so they say to tell what street someone came from,
quite an achievement with the packed row on row back to back crowded
terraced housing of the time. I s'pose it's just an extension of the
phenomenon whereby families, and extended families, have their own
funny little sayings. I'm sure we all notice, as we get on in life,
that as we say something, we sound just like our own father or
mother! This island seems to be the same sort of setting as the
Manchester slums. There are a number of tiny little sub-communities,
that witness the basics of everyday life, but are all involved in a
wider group, be it the local cotton mill, or the island's fishing
fleet or whatnot, and thus there is opportunity for everyone to
become fully conversant in their own microdialect while being forever
aware of the other local forms, and thus well able to utilise them as
markers of origin and membership.
Ben
Dan wrote;
I've been waiting for an excuse to post something I ran
across and find remarkable. No one's provided an excuse, so I'll
go ahead anyway:
http://www.esva.net/ghotes/chincoteague/drbillchinco1.htm
Chincoteague Talk
Chincoteague is 7 miles long and 2 miles wide. In 1930 we
had population of about 3,000. There were at least 6 different
dialects - I could tell which part of the Island they came from by
their speech. In general there were (1) "Up-the-Neckers" (2)
"Deep Holers" (3) "Tick-towners" (4) "East Siders" (5) "Birch-
towners" and (6) "Snotty-Ridgers."
Chincoteague is one of the barrier islands on the Atlantic
coast of Virginia. It was settled by whites about 1700 (and fewer
blacks -- if the writer was reminded of them, he'd probably say
"Oh yeah. They just talked like colored people"), and was quite
isolated until a causeway and bridges were built from the
mainland in the 1920's. Some of the islands in Chesapeake
Bay on the other side of the peninsula are well known for
characteristic speech (popularly but almost certainly wrongly
said to be "pure Elizabethan"), but I've never heard of such
diversity within a small island.
It's too bad no linguist investigated before Chincoteague
became just about like any other place in the USA.
Dan Milton