The Genesis of American English Theoretical Framework

Building on the foundations of Chapter 10, Chapters 11 and 12 propose a broader theoretical framework to explain how secular English basilectal and mesolectal idioms – both secular and ecclesiastical – were consolidated, reworked, and melded into regional American koines, rather than a single uniform variety. One of the most striking developments in this process is that, by the early eighteenth century, multidialectal, basilect-speaking British settlers (primarily English during the seventeenth century), alongside a minority of multilingual European and African immigrants, gradually shed their native basilectal and parochial idioms. They adopted relatively homogeneous mesolectal varieties that, to educated eighteenth-century English ears, resembled what was perceived as the “polite” southern English standard.To support this argument, the first section of the chapter presents a case study comparing descriptions and observations made by eighteenth-century English visitors to America regarding its linguistic “purity” and “unity” across the colonies. Similar observations of Québecois French by French gentlemen and priests traveling in New France during the same period are discussed, showing that these phenomena are not fortuitous but have clear sociolinguistic explanations.To explain how dialect leveling and the upward drift toward more prestigious mesolectal varieties of North American English and Québecois French occurred, I integrate several theoretical perspectives as interconnected elements of a single process. These include Salikoko Mufwene’s “founder generation principle” and the notion of the “feature pool” in colonial contexts. I introduce concepts such as the “sharedness principle” in contact situations and the idea of “phonetic ranges” within the koineization process (cf. Chapter 12). Howard Giles’ Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT), including the processes of “convergence” and “divergence,” also plays an important role. Finally, I interpret Derek Bickerton’s Language Bioprogram Theory, emphasizing the role of children and adolescents in providing linguistic unity in multidialectal colonial settings.The theoretical foundations developed in these chapters provide a framework for tracing the development of early American English during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Ultimately, the goal is to identify the phonemic inventory of Benjamin Franklin’s native Boston accent with as much precision as possible. This is a primary objective of Part III.