Re: Language Subtag Registration

Well, I have been thinking about this for some time. My native dialect (from which I am long sundered) is this one. I still occasionally pronounce “water” as [ˈw̵uɾəɹ]. John Cowan will know.

There are other sources; I have them in my own collection:

Salvucci, Claudio R. 1995. A Grammar of the Philadelphia Dialect. Bucks County: Evolution Publishing. ISBN 0-9644234-1-3

Salvucci, Claudio R. 1996. The Philadelphia Dialect Dictionary. Bucks County: Evolution Publishing. ISBN 0-9644234-2-1

Salvucci, Claudio R. 1997. A Dictionary of Pennsylvanianisms. (Dialect Dictionaries of the Mid-Atlantic; 1: Pennsylvania) Southampton: Evolution Publishing. ISBN 0-9644234-5-6

But I do not know what the usage scenario is for this. I’ve published Alices in Appalachian, Scouse, and Cornu-English dialect. One of the elements of this publication is orthographic. Indeed, the orthography is a means of identifying the language-form used. 

Obviously Philadelphia English exists, but why does it need a tag? Pronunciation is not usually marked by re-spellings. The requester rightly notes that it exists, but doesn’t give any reason for needing the subtag. 

At the moment, I’m not minded to approve this. I would think that US-paphilly would be a reasonable subtag format though, incorporating a state and subsequent identifier. But Philadelphia English is spoken in New Jersey too. 

Michael Everson

> On 21 Aug 2018, at 20:06, Nicholas Felker <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
>    1. Name of requester: Nick Felker
>    2. E-mail address of requester: nickfelker at gmail dot com
>    3. Record Requested:
> 
>       Type: variant
>       Subtag: philly
>       Description: Philadelphia dialect of US English
>       Prefix: en-US
> 
>    4. Intended meaning of the subtag: 
> 
> The specific dialect of English as people speak in Philadelphia and the surrounding neighborhoods. This is not a simple accent or set of colloquialisms. I would argue that it is a unique variant of standard US English which has its own set of vocabulary, grammatical rules, and pronunciations that make it distinct in comparison to language used in other regions.
> 
> It is a blend of language which has evolved due to the cultural diversity of the city, with a mix of African American Vernacular English along with European immigrants from varying nations over several centuries.
> 
> As stated in section 3.6 of the RFC 5646, "variations within a language...or distinguishing variation MAY be registered as variant subtags". I believe that there is sufficient evidence to state that Philadelphia English is considered a distinguishing variation. This language variant has received ample study over the past several decades in both a colloquial setting as well as from professional linguists.
> 
>    5. Reference to published description
>       of the language (book or article):
> 
> The role of African Americans in Philadelphia sound change - William Labov
> https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/language-variation-and-change/article/role-of-african-americans-in-philadelphia-sound-change/9685036E424DB63B70D06FF8A66AA67F
> 
> A Jawn by Any Other Name: A Sociolinguistic Analysis of the Philadelphia Dialect - Ryan Hall
> https://digitalcommons.lasalle.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1032&context=honors_projects
> 
>    6. Any other relevant information:
> 
> Philadelphia English - Wikipedia
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia_English
> 
> Project by Penn linguists documents Philadelphia accent in ASL
> https://penntoday.upenn.edu/2016-01-21/research/project-penn-linguists-documents-philadelphia-accent-asl
> 
> 
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