Date: Tue, 11 Mar 1997 13:31:13 -0500 From: Mark Mandel Subject: Re: mapping dialect spread -Reply >>> Matthew James Gordon 0311.1024 >>> I think the article you're almost remembering is "Some patterns of linguistic diffusion" by Guy Bailey et al., which appeared in Language Variation and Change, (1993). This presents some interesting results from the SOD (Survey of Oklahoma Dialects) Project and does investigate some "apparent time" data. <<<< I have noticed in myself, as I aged and especially as I felt myself aspiring to cross certain felt boundaries of age/seniority/respectability, a tendency to emulate the speech of my elders/seniors and set aside some habits of speech that I felt seemed markers of immaturity. Unfortunately I can't remember specifics just now, but they may come back to me with thought. But I wonder (both now and at the time): If this is a common tendency, would it tend to obscure or blur such "apparent time" studies, which are dependent on the assumption that, roughly, a person's speech at the time of survey is the same as it was when she was acquiring native fluency? How would one ascertain the dimensions of such "retrogressive development"? Mark A. Mandel : Senior Linguist : mark[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]dragonsys.com Dragon Systems, Inc. : speech recognition : +1 617 965-5200 320 Nevada St., Newton, MA 02160, USA : http://www.dragonsys.com/ Personal home page: http://world.std.com/~mam/