The Southern Speech Journal

The fifth volume of The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture explores language and dialect in the South, including English and its numerous regional variants, Native American languages, and other non-English languages spoken over time by the region's immigrant communities. Among the more than sixty entries are eleven on indigenous languages and major essays on French, Spanish, and German. Each of these provides both historical and contemporary perspectives, identifying the language's location, number of speakers, vitality, and sample distinctive features. The book acknowledges the role of immigration in spreading features of Southern English to other regions and countries and in bringing linguistic influences from Europe and Africa to Southern English. The fascinating patchwork of English dialects is also fully presented, from African American English, Gullah, and Cajun English to the English spoken in Appalachia, the Ozarks, the Outer Banks, the Chesapeake Bay Islands, Charleston, and elsewhere. Topical entries discuss ongoing changes in the pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar of English in the increasingly mobile South, as well as naming patterns, storytelling, preaching styles, and politeness, all of which deal with ways language is woven into southern culture.

In The Ethics and Politics of Speech, Pat J. Gehrke provides an accessible yet intensive history of the speech communication discipline during the twentieth century. Drawing on several previously unpublished or unexamined sources—including essays, conference proceedings, and archival documents—Gehrke traces the evolution of communication studies and the dilemmas that often have faced academics in this field. In his examination, Gehrke not only provides fresh perspectives on old models of thinking; he reveals new methods for approaching future studies of ethical and political communication. Gehrke begins his history with the first half of the twentieth century, discussing the development of a social psychology of speech and an ethics based on scientific principles, and showing the importance of democracy to teaching and scholarship at this time. He then investigates the shift toward philosophical—especially existential—ways of thinking about communication and ethics starting in the 1950s and continuing through the mid-1970s, a period associated with the rise of rhetoric in the discipline. In the chapters covering the last decades of the twentieth century, Gehrke demonstrates how the ethics and politics of communication were directed back onto the practices of scholarship within the discipline, examining the increased use of postmodern and poststructuralist theories, as well as the new trend toward writing original theory, rather than reinterpreting the past. In offering a thorough history of rhetoric studies, Gehrke sets the stage for new questions and arguments, ultimately emphasizing the deeply moral and political implications that by nature embed themselves in the field of communication. More than simply a history of the discipline's major developments, The Ethics and Politics of Speech is an account of the philosophical and moral struggles that have faced communication scholars throughout the last century. As Gehrke explores the themes and movements within rhetoric and speech studies of the past, he also provides a better understanding of the powerful forces behind the forging of the field. In doing so, he reveals history’s potential to act as a vehicle for further academic innovation in the future.

This book synthesizes research on language development and communication disability in Sub-Saharan Africa and highlights best practices for providing speech and language therapy services to individuals with language, communication, and hearing disorders across the lifespan. The book brings together a wide range of international contributions from various disciplines, such as speech-language pathology, audiology, developmental psychology, language education, social work, neurology, neuropsychology, pediatrics, linguistics, pedagogy, and phonetics to provide perspectives on problems, challenges, ideas, concepts, and models to serve the people in Sub-Saharan Africa. Key areas of coverage include: Challenges for speech-language therapists in the health sector. Community awareness and the sustainable delivery of services. Culture-specific support of communication and language development in early childhood. Malnutrition, dysphagia, feeding difficulties, pediatric HIV, and related issues. Communication disability treatments, including assessment and intervention, augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), and issues specific to bilingualism and biliteracy. Inclusive education of children with communication disorders with case studies from Rwanda, Tanzania, Kenya, and South Africa. The Handbook of Speech-Language Therapy in Sub-Saharan Africa is an essential reference for researchers, professors, and graduate students as well as clinicians, therapists, and other professionals in developmental psychology, speech-language pathology and therapy, social work, neuropsychology, pediatrics, special education, community based rehabilitation, and all related disciplines.