Language in Baltimore

“Yo Said What?” In this April 2013 interview on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered and hosted on the NPR Code Switch Blog, Dr. Christine Mallinson talks about Baltimore adolescents’ use of ‘yo’ as a gender-neutral 3rd person singular pronoun–an unusual and interesting linguistic innovation in American English.

The podcast “Welcome to Baltimore, Hon!” was published as an audio feature in the fall 2012 issue of the journal American Speech. As the linguist Allan Metcalf noted in this article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, American Speech often publishes articles that are accessible to the general readership, including this audio feature. “In the past year of American Speech, for example, there have been accessible articles on witness depositions in the Salem witch trials, the difference between swearwords and slang, hon as a distinctive feature of Baltimore speech (“Welcome to Baltimore, Hon!”), and whether Utahns really don’t pronounce the “t” in mountain. There are reviews, and a collection of articles on teaching about dialects, and short notes on matters like the etymology of a word. The Baltimore article is actually an ‘audio feature,’ including a link to interviews with residents of the city. Yes, American Speech now includes speech.”

Happy New Year!  This blog got about 3,600 views in 2012. The busiest day of the year was February 25th with177 views. The most popular post that day was of the podcast, Welcome to Baltimore, Hon!

Click here to see the complete report.

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Welcome to Baltimorelanguage.com, dedicated to exploring the linguistic charm of Baltimore, Maryland, otherwise known as “Charm City.”   In Baltimore, locals and visitors can hear a range of unique accents, dialects, and languages.  Explore this site and listen to podcasts on topics related to language in Baltimore that were produced by myself and by students in a Language, Literacy & Culture Program graduate seminar at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County (UMBC).  Be sure to leave comments about what you think!