Does The Ohio River Mark The Boundary Between Midland and Southern English: An Empirical Study
University
Shawnee State University
Major
English Humanities
Student Type
Undergraduate Student
Presentation Types
Oral Presentation (Live)
Keywords:
Midland Dialect, Southern Dialect, Ungliding, Double Negatives
Abstract
This paper presents the analysis of socio-linguistic data obtained from two speakers of Midland and Southern dialects of AE from both sides of the Ohio River to support the claim that the Ohio River still acts as a dividing line between two distinct dialects of American English. The Midland speaker (MS) is from Portsmouth while the Southern dialect speaker (SS) from Greenup, KY. The analysis of the data shows notable differences between these speakers in terms of vowel changes such as mergers in MS as opposed to the ungliding of diphthongs in SS. Other changes include but are not limited to -ing reduction in verbs, as well as rhotic pronunciation of some words. Grammatical changes include regularized past tense along with regularized agreement and a variety of double-negatives. The paper concludes that Southern dialect is robust and strong even among younger generations of speakers in KY.
Human and Animal Subjects
yes
IRB or IACUC Approval
yes
Faculty Mentor Name
Leila Lomashvili
Faculty Mentor Department
English and Humanities
Recommended Citation
Ucci, Annie, "Does The Ohio River Mark The Boundary Between Midland and Southern English: An Empirical Study" (2026). Celebration of Scholarship. 1.
https://digitalcommons.shawnee.edu/cos/2026/dayone/1
Does The Ohio River Mark The Boundary Between Midland and Southern English: An Empirical Study
This paper presents the analysis of socio-linguistic data obtained from two speakers of Midland and Southern dialects of AE from both sides of the Ohio River to support the claim that the Ohio River still acts as a dividing line between two distinct dialects of American English. The Midland speaker (MS) is from Portsmouth while the Southern dialect speaker (SS) from Greenup, KY. The analysis of the data shows notable differences between these speakers in terms of vowel changes such as mergers in MS as opposed to the ungliding of diphthongs in SS. Other changes include but are not limited to -ing reduction in verbs, as well as rhotic pronunciation of some words. Grammatical changes include regularized past tense along with regularized agreement and a variety of double-negatives. The paper concludes that Southern dialect is robust and strong even among younger generations of speakers in KY.