Hello, New New England (The Chronicle of Higher Education)

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports on a study by James Stanford, an assistant professor of linguistics and cognitive science, Kenneth Baclawski Jr. ’12, and Thomas Leddy-Cecere ’10, who write about the dropped R after vowels and other variations in spoken English in New England.

The authors cite an eastward movement of the 200-year-old boundary between eastern New England’s pronunciation and that of people living to the west. The dividing line used to be the Green Mountains of Vermont, according to the study, but is now the Vermont-New Hampshire border. Among young people, the boundary is even farther east, say the authors, whose study was published in the journal American Speech.

Read the full story, published 8/13/12 in The Chronicle of Higher Education.