Chapters in this book

1. Prelim pages i
2. Table of contents v
3. Introducing the Midland: What is it, where is it, how do we know? ix
4. 1. What is dialect? — Revisiting the Midland 1
5. The Evolving Midland
6. 1. The North American Midland as a dialect area 33
7. 2. Tracking the low back merger in Missouri 57
8. 3. Evidence from Ohio on the evolution of /ae/ 69
9. Defining The Midland
10. 4. On the use of geographic names to inform regional language studies 93
11. 5. On the eastern edge of the Heartland 105
12. 6. The final days of Appalachian Heritage Language 129
13. 8. It’ll kill ye or cure ye, one 151
14. Power and Perception
15. 7. Standardizing the Heartland 165
16. 10. How to get to be one kind of Midwesterner 179
17. 11. Midland(s) dialect geography 199
18. 12. Drawing out the /ai/ 209
19. Other Languages, Other Places
20. 13. Learning Spanish in the North Georgia Mountains 235
21. 14. The Midland above the Midland 245
22. 15. Portable Community 263
23. 16. The English of the Swiss Amish of Northeastern Indiana 275
24. References 293
25. Subject Index 313