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Utah English, sometimes humorously referred to as '''"Utahnics"''', is a Dialect of the English Language spoken in the U.S. state of Utah . Influences are as varied as ancestries of its immigrants, from Scottish to Mexican Spanish. Since the field of Sociolinguistics is relatively new to academia, very little research has been done on the dialect. However, a research team at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah has begun a comparative project on the topic.http://linguistics.byu.edu/utep/English.swf


DISTINCTIONS OF THE DIALECT


Vowel shifts

  • The Merger Of And , such that "born" may be pronounced "barn" and the town of "American Fork" becomes "American Fark." This also takes place among older speakers in St. Louis.

  • "egg", "leg", "leisure" and similar words pronounced with the "ay" sound of "hay", rather than the "eh" sound of "wet".



Introduction, removal, and morphing of stops and plosives

  • Introduction of a "T" into certain words: "teacher" pronounced "teat-chur;" "preacher" as "preat-chur;" other examples include between the sounds "L" and "S" ("Nelson" and "Wilson" pronounced as "Neltson" and "Wiltson").

  • Shortening of some words from several syllables to one or two (different from general consonant cluster reduction): "corral" as "crall", "probably" to "probly," "prolly," or "pry."

  • removal of the hard T sounds from words. Layton is layon. Mountain to moun-ian. This happens in most American dialects.



CHANGES

The unique pronunciations of the dialect, as is typical of American accents, are most marked in the speech of rural and older residents. Much of the state continues to move towards the General American accent (due in large part to immigration and technological/communication advances within the last fifty years, specifically the ubiquity of the television).


SAMPLE VOCABULARY

  • Barrow Pit = General American "Ditch" ''I almost drove in to the barrow pit.''


  • Jocky Box = General American "Glove Box" / ''Hand me a tissue out of the jokey box.''


  • Cut Cookies = General American "Doing Doughnuts" (i.e. to make a circle in the dirt with your tires) / ''I cut some cookies in the driveway with my new motorcycle.''



NOTES



REFERENCES