Walt Wolfram ( ; born February 15, 1941) is an American sociolinguist specializing in social and ethnic dialects of

American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lang ...

. He was one of the early pioneers in the study of urban

African American English African-American English (AAE) is the umbrella term for English dialects spoken predominantly by Black people in the United States and, less often, in Canada; most commonly, it refers to a dialect continuum ranging from African-American Vern ...

through his work in

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

in 1969. He is the William C. Friday

Distinguished University Professor Professors in the United States commonly occupy any of several positions of teaching and research within a college or university. In the U.S., the word "professor" is often used to refer to anyone who teaches at a college of university level at ...

North Carolina State University North Carolina State University (NC State, North Carolina State, NC State University, or NCSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1887 and p ...

. Since the 1960s, Wolfram has authored or co-authored more than 20 books and more than 300 articles on variation in

. He was an active participant in the 1996 debate surrounding the Oakland Ebonics controversy, supporting the legitimacy of

as a systematic language system. In addition to African American English, Wolfram has written extensively about Appalachian English, Puerto Rican English, Lumbee English, and many other dialects of

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

, particularly those of rural, isolated communities such as Ocracoke Island.

Biography

Wolfram was born

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, Pennsylvania in 1941. His parents were German immigrants. He attended and graduated from Olney High School, where he played baseball, basketball, and football. He received his B.A. in anthropology (Greek) in 1963 from Wheaton College, where he played football and basketball. He received his M.A. in linguistics from Hartford Seminary Foundation in 1966, and his Ph.D. in linguistics from Hartford Seminary Foundation in 1969, studying under Roger Shuy. He has been on the faculty at

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private Jesuit research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic higher education, Ca ...

and the University of the District of Columbia, was the Director of Research at the Center for Applied Linguistics from 1980 to 1992, and in 1992 he was named the first William C. Friday Distinguished University Professor of English Linguistics at North Carolina State University. Wolfram is a former president of the Linguistic Society of America as well as of the American Dialect Society.

Linguistics and the public

Linguistic gratuity

In 1993, Wolfram formulated the principle of linguistic gratuity, which states that "investigators who have obtained linguistic data from members of a speech community should actively pursue ways in which they can return linguistic favors to the community". In 2008, he and co-authors outlined venues for engaging in linguistic gratuity, including "video documentaries, oral history CDs, museum exhibits, formal curricular programs, and popular trade books on language differences," venues through which Wolfram himself has engaged in collaborative engagement via the Language and Life Project .

Language and Life Project

Wolfram directs th
Language and Life Project
a nonprofit at North Carolina State University dedicated to documenting and celebrating language diversity through public means. He established the Language and Life Project in 1993. Through the Language and Life Project, Wolfram has been involved in the production of television and film documentaries about dialect diversity (often in collaboration with Neal Hutcheson), as well as the construction of museum exhibits, the publication of popular books, and the development of dialect awareness curricula for schools and the general public.

Documentaries

Wolfram was executive producer for the Language and Life Project documentary film
First Language: The Race to Save Cherokee
' (2014), produced and directed by Danica Cullinan and Neal Hutcheson. The documentary chronicles the history of the Cherokee language in North Carolina and the efforts of the Eastern Band of Cherokee to save and preserve their endangered language. The film was awarded Best Public Service Film at the 2014 American Indian Film Festival. In 2015, PBS selected the documentary for national distribution, making it available for broadcast at member stations in 2016. In 2016, film won a regional Emmy in the documentary/cultural category at the 30th Midsouth Emmy Awards. Also in conjunction with the Language and Life Project, Wolfram was executive producer for the documentary films
Talking Black in America: The Story of African American Language
' (2019) an
''Signing Black in America: The Story of Black ASL''
(2020), both produced and directed by Danica Cullinan and Neal Hutcheson; as well as th
Talking Black in American Project
a five-part documentary television series. ''Talking Black in America'' (2019) chronicles the history and impact of

. In 2020, the film won a Midsouth Regional

Emmy The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award catego ...

award in the documentary/cultural category. ''Signing Black in America'' (2020) is the first documentary about Black ASL.

Popular books

Wolfram has co-authored and co-edited multiple books written for the general public, including: ''Hoi Toide on the Sound Soide: The Story of the Ocracoke Brogue'' (1997 UNC Press), co-authored with Natalie Schilling; ''American Voices: How Dialects Differ from Coast to Coast'' ( Wiley 2005), co-edited with Ben Ward; ''Talkin' Tar Heel: How our Voices Tell the Story of North Carolina'' (2014 UNC Press), co-authored with Jeffrey Reaser; and ''The Five-Minute Linguist: Bite-sized Essays on Language and Languages, 3rd Edition'' ( Equinox 2019). ''Talkin' Tar Heel'' explores regional, social, and ethnic dialects of North Carolina, drawing upon decades of research and thousands of recorded interviews with North Carolinians. The book was written for the general audience, with the goal of "shar ngknowledge and respect for the languages and dialects in North Carolina in a readable, audible, and visual format accessible to the public." It is first popular linguistics book to embed more than 100 video and audio clips through the use of QR codes. The book was awarded the 2014 North Caroliniana Book Award by the North Caroliniana Society.

Awards and honors

In 2008, Wolfram was honored with the prestigious John Tyler Caldwell Award for the Humanities from the North Carolina Humanities Council, a statewide nonprofit affiliate of the

National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...

. In 2010, he was awarded the Linguistics, Language, and the Public Award by the Linguistic Society of America. In 2013, he was awarded the North Carolina Award, the highest award given to a North Carolina citizen. In 2018, he was awarded the Governor James E. Holshouser, Jr. Award for Excellence in Public Service by the UNC System. In 2019, he was inducted into the prestigious

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

References

Wolfram, Walt and Jeffrey Reaser. 2014. Talkin' Tar Heel: How our Voices Tell the Story of North Carolina. Chapel Hill. University of North Carolina Press.

External links

Walt Wolfram's homepage at NCSU

Walt Wolfram's "How They Became Linguists" on LinguistList

WUNC interview with Wolfram about ''Talkin' Tar Heel''

Indy Weekly interview with Wolfram on his educational documentary films

NCSU Libraries Guide to the Walt Wolfram Papers 1971-1998

Wolfram named recipient of the 2008 Caldwell Award for the Humanities from the North Carolina Humanities Council
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolfram, Walt American sociolinguists Linguists of English 1941 births Living people Wheaton College (Illinois) alumni Georgetown University faculty Hartford Seminary alumni North Carolina State University faculty University of the District of Columbia faculty Linguistic Society of America presidents Fellows of the Linguistic Society of America 20th-century American linguists 21st-century American linguists