Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Central Pennsylvania accent (2nd nomination)


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was   keep. (non-admin closure) Dori ☾Talk ☯ Contribs☽ 21:19, 20 September 2012 (UTC)

Central Pennsylvania accent
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unreferenced for 7 years. and full of original research. a search on google scholar shows that this isn't really studied in linguistics. . LibStar (talk) 01:50, 12 September 2012 (UTC)


 * Keep - Heavily flagged and for understandable reason, but THIS LINK indicates that the "Central Pennsylvania accent" is actually "studied in linguistics." Per the multiple academic studies cited in the piece, this passes as an encyclopedic topic covered by multiple, substantial, independent publications. Carrite (talk) 02:05, 12 September 2012 (UTC)


 * which of these specifically refer to Central Pennsylvania, you would expect it appear in google scholar or gbooks This search refers often to books using WP as a soruce.

LibStar (talk) 03:07, 12 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Carver, Craig M. 1989. American Regional Dialects: A Word Geography. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
 * De Camp, L. Sprague. 1940. Scranton Pronunciation. American Speech 15:368-372.
 * Kurath, Hans. 1949. A Word Geography of the Eastern United States. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
 * Kurath, Hans and Raven I. McDavid. 1961. The Pronunciation of English in the Atlantic States. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
 * Labov, William. 1991. The Three Dialects of English. In Penny Eckert, ed. New Ways of Analyzing Sound Change. New York:Academic Press, pp. 1-44.
 * Thomas, Charles K. 1958. The Phonetics of American English. New York


 * Sorry, I was unclear. There are a couple research papers referenced in the link I cited. I'm just gonna snip in the Central Pennsylvania section from that so people can see what I'm on about:
 * "In his Word Geography (1949), Kurath uses the term "Central Pennsylvania" in table II (pp. 28-29) as a sub-region between "Western Pennsylvania" and the "Great Valley." Judging by the distribution of the terms he cites for this region, his notion of "Central Pennsylvania" corresponds precisely with mine; see especially (arm)load (fig. 73) and quarter till (fig. 44). But this same area was included within the territory of Eastern Pennsylvania in KurathÕs LAMSAS map; and the evidence for that inclusion is weak. Contemporary though less scrupulous research by Thomas (1958), includes Central PA within the Western Pennsylvania area; this conclusion is more easily justifiable, since both areas share the merger of O and AW. Carver (1989) shows that the area of heavy Pennsylvania German lexical influence extends into Mifflin, Juniata, Perry, Cumberland, and Franklin counties, perhaps including portions of Huntingdon and Fulton. Yet is also possible to see the Pennsylvania German lexicon gradually dissipating as it extends westward, without any clear demarcations. One researcher has proposed a "Bedford" subarea, which would involve Blair, Bedford, western Huntingdon, Fulton, and perhaps also portions of Somerset counties, which lack a heavy concentration of Pennsylvania Germanisms and also lack many typically Western Pennsylvania terms (Ashcom 1953)."
 * From this we can see that there are clearly academic studies out there dealing with the Central Pennsylvania dialect. (Is this article mistitled? Maybe...) Carrite (talk) 05:16, 12 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Central Pennsylvania dialect turns up only 1 gscholar hit. LibStar (talk) 07:00, 14 September 2012 (UTC)


 * Keep - I agree with Carrite. This one of many articles started, but never finished and seriously needs help from an expert. Unfortunately, too many experts avoid the often byzantine rules and editors of Wikipedia. And that is my opinion only. Jrcrin001 (talk) 02:40, 12 September 2012 (UTC)
 * comment a search of US universities reveals hardly anything too . LibStar (talk) 03:54, 12 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Pennsylvania-related deletion discussions.  • Gene93k (talk) 12:27, 13 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Language-related deletion discussions.  • Gene93k (talk) 12:27, 13 September 2012 (UTC)


 * Delete. Almost entirely OR.  Time for TNT.  -- No  unique  names  15:47, 13 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Delete unless it gets cleaned up and referenced with reliable, scientific sources (not things like newspaper articles and books written to amuse tourists, but actual linguistics books and articles) by the time this AFD is over. Several years ago I worked pretty hard to bring Northeast Pennsylvania English up to encyclopedic standards, but I don't have the time or Sitzfleisch to do it again for this article. Angr (talk) 06:49, 14 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Weak keep, though possibly move and certainly clean up. Kurath and McDavid, as well as Labov, Ash & Boberg actually do refer to central Pennsylvania (at least according to Google Books; I haven't got either volume in front of me). I don't think its received nearly the sociolinguistic attention western Pennsylvania has, but it has been described. Cnilep (talk) 07:03, 14 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Keep per WP:BEFORE. Normal editing can fix this one; it's not such a mess that it requires WP:TNT. Bearian (talk) 20:44, 17 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Keep If notability has been established and the only issue is a need for cleanup, then it should not be deleted. It can be cleaned up now or whenever, messiness is not a deletion criterion. ZX95 (talk) 15:51, 18 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Keep. AfD is not for cleanup. - The Bushranger One ping only 19:04, 20 September 2012 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.