Page 25 - The University of Wisconsin Press Spring 2013
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PAPERBACK ORIGINAL
AUGUST
LC: 2012037480 PE
152 PP. 6 X 9 46 B/W ILLUS.
E-BOOK $16.95 ISBN 978-0-299-29333-8
INTRODUCING A NEW SERIES
Languages and Folklore of
the Upper Midwest
Joseph Salmons and James P. Leary,
Series Editors
“An outstanding book that will set
the standards for books of its kind.
At once accessible—indeed, enjoy-
able—and both original and fully
informed.”
Michael Adams, editor of
American Speech
LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS / ETHNIC STUDIES / WISCONSIN
Yah, it’s true! Wisconsin is one of the most linguistically interesting
places in North America.
Wisconsin is one of the most linguistically rich places in North America. It
has the greatest diversity of American Indian languages east of the Mississippi,
including Ojibwe and Menominee from the Algonquian language family,
Ho-Chunk from the Siouan family, and Oneida from the Iroquoian family.
French place names dot the state’s map. German, Norwegian, and Polish—the
languages of immigrants in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries—are still
spoken by tens of thousands of people, and the influx of new immigrants speaking
Spanish, Hmong, and Somali continues to enrich the state’s cultural landscape.
These languages and others (Walloon, Cornish, Finnish, Czech, and more) have
shaped the kinds of English spoken around the state. Within Wisconsin’s borders
are found three different major dialects of American English, and despite the
influences of mass media and popular culture, they are not merging—they are
dramatically diverging.
An engaging survey for both general readers and language scholars,
Wisconsin
Talk
brings together perspectives from linguistics, history, cultural studies, and
geography to illuminate why language matters in our everyday lives. The authors
highlight such topics as:
• words distinctive to the state
• how recent and earlier immigrants have negotiated cultural and linguistic
challenges
• the diversity of bilingual speakers that enriches our communities
• how maps can convey the stories of language
• the relation of Wisconsin’s Indian languages to language loss worldwide.
Thomas Purnell
is associate professor of English at the University of Wisconsin–
Madison, and his research examines the interface between phonetics and phonol-
ogy with a focus on regional pronunciation.
Eric Raimy
is associate professor of
English language and linguistics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and is
coeditor of
Contemporary Views on Architecture and Representations in Phonology
and
Handbook of the Syllable
.
Joseph Salmons
is the Lester W. J. “Smoky” Seifert
Professor of Germanic Linguistics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is
author of
A History of German: What the Past Reveals about Today’s Language
and
executive editor of
Diachronica: International Journal for Historical Linguistics.
UWPRESS
.
WISC
.
EDU
25
O f r e l a t e d i n t e r e s t
“A readable, diverse, informative, and well-
chosen anthology of essays on Wisconsin
folklore. . . . Leary is a gifted writer with
interesting anecdotes, as well as thorough
knowledge of American folklore scholar-
ship.”—Jan Harold Brunvand, author of
American Folklore
PUBLISHED JANUARY 1999
LC: 98-16371 GR 560 PP. 6 × 9 121 B/W ILLUS.
E-BOOK $16.95 ISBN 978-0-299-16033-3
