Keywords

Cowlitz County linguistic change, timber industry influence on speech, cot–caught merger, /u/ fronting in the West

Abstract

Hypothesis: Linguistic changes happened because of the changing timber industry.

Cowlitz County, Washington:

  • Sparsely populated before 1920s
  • Longview founded in 1923 by R. A. Long - two large lumber mills
  • Population ≈ 35,000
  • Right off I-5, two hours south of Seattle and one hour north of Portland

The West:

  • cot-caught merger
  • fronting of /u/
  • lack of Southern, Midland, and Canadian features

Original Publication Citation

Joseph A. Stanley. “The linguistic effects of a changing timber industry: Language change in Cowlitz County, WA.” The 4th Annual Linguistics Conference at UGA (LSUGA4). Athens, GA. October 6–8, 2017.

Document Type

Presentation

Publication Date

2017

Publisher

The 4th Annual Linguistics Conference at UGA

Language

English

College

Humanities

Department

Linguistics

University Standing at Time of Publication

Assistant Professor

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