--- title: "English Dialects in San Antonio — paper by Baird (1985)" description: "Baird re-examines this with 1975 sociolinguistic fieldwork. 3 references. Among them: 1." authors: ["Scott Baird"] year: 1985 venue: "Names 33" source: "http://ans-names.pitt.edu/ans/article/view/1098" doi: "10.1179/nam.1985.33.4.232" licence: "CC BY (journal licence per DOAJ; Names)" licence_url: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" summary_licence: "Elamur Cosmic License" canonical: "https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/baird-1985-english-dialects-san-antonio/" --- [Elamur Research](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/baird-1985-english-dialects-san-antonio/) [home](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [papers](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/) / [1985](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/1985/) / English Dialects in San Antonio # English Dialects in San Antonio **Authors:** Scott Baird · **Year:** 1985 · **Venue:** [Names 33](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/venues/names/) ([Names 1985](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/venues/names/1985/)) · **Publisher:** [University Library System, University of Pittsburgh](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/publishers/university-library-system-university-of-pittsburgh/) · **Licence:** [CC BY (journal licence per DOAJ; Names)](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) **Links:** [Publisher's page](https://doi.org/10.1179/nam.1985.33.4.232) · [PDF](https://ans-names.pitt.edu/ans/article/download/1098/1097) · [DOI 10.1179/nam.1985.33.4.232](https://doi.org/10.1179/nam.1985.33.4.232) · [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org/W2093883584) **Citations:** 1 citations (OpenAlex, 2026-10-14) ## Summary Baird asks whether San Antonio has one Anglo English dialect or several. Earlier dialect-geography work by Sawyer and Atwood described the city as Southern in pronunciation and denied any Spanish influence on English. Baird re-examines this with 1975 sociolinguistic fieldwork. Hamilton recorded spontaneous speech in grocery stores, and students recorded mall-goers reading a list of street names, presented as a traffic survey. Baird then analyzed one name, "Blanco," in detail. He sorted its eight phonetic variants into four groups (Spanish, Standard English, Southern, and a blended Southwest) and cross-tabulated them with informant demographics in SPSS. Pronunciation tracked ethnicity and self-rated Spanish knowledge but not mall location. Monolingual English speakers with no Spanish still used the blended forms. Baird concludes that Anglo monolingual speech in the city holds three dialects: Southern, Southwest and Standardized. Spanish-origin place names carry visible Spanish influence. He argues that understanding a city's language requires fusing linguistic geography (many items, few informants) with sociolinguistics (few items, many informants). ## Key points - **Hamilton grocery survey:** visits to all 29 Handy Andy markets produced 253 valid tokens from 61 speakers, about 60% Mexican-American. Target words came from Sawyer, e.g. greasy, pin/pen, new. The data already suggested Southern, Southwest and Standardized varieties. - **Street names survey:** the list had 24 real downtown streets plus the invented "Quintanilla," chosen after a pilot of 15 fake names. Students interviewed people at seven malls and downtown. - **"Blanco" analysis:** 66 audible responses came from three malls with 17, 22 and 27 informants. The eight variants were collapsed into four categories. - **Overall shares:** Standardized 46%, Southern 25%, Southwest 25%, Spanish 4%. - **By ethnicity:** - Anglos and Blacks: Standardized 52.5%, Southern 35%, Southwest 12.5%, Spanish 0%. - Mexican-Americans: Southwest 45%, Standardized 29%, Southern 16%, Spanish 10%. - Speakers with no Spanish used Southwest forms about as often as Southern (27%). ## Interesting ideas - **Planted nonce item:** a made-up street name hidden in the middle of a real list showed whether speakers apply a pattern productively rather than recalling a memorized form, and its position mattered for getting responses. - **Variants as source A, source B, or a principled mix:** each pronunciation was labelled by which parts come from each source system, so blending became an explicit, countable category instead of noise. - **Cross-item consistency as a signal:** speakers who said "La Villita" with a Spanish -ll- did the same with "Quintanilla," so one item predicted behaviour on another. - **Proxy metadata can mislead:** mall location stood in for residency and showed no effect, while asking about residency directly later did produce correlations. - **Intuitive grouping treated as a testable hypothesis:** Baird grouped variants by judgment first, then checked the grouping statistically against independent variables. ## For Mova How these ideas could serve Mova, our small open language model — its files, stages and tests: - **I1** (learn): seed evaluation sets with invented words and names placed among real ones, as a negative control that separates true generalization from lookup. - **I2** (tree): in UD dialect conversion, tag each annotation decision as convention A, convention B, or hybrid, so mixed treebanks become measurable rather than silently merged. - **I3** (tokens): check loanword and proper-name handling for consistency across related items; disagreement between sibling forms can flag tokenizer or lemma errors. - **I4** (learn): when slicing evaluation by text source or domain, verify that the metadata really measures what is assumed, before concluding a factor has no effect. - **I5** (learn): let LLM-teacher or hand-made categories enter as hypotheses that must earn support from agreement with independent witnesses, rather than being accepted as gold. *Our summary of the paper, in our own words — not its text. The work belongs to its authors; read it at the links above.* 📚 Shelves (4): [🎭 Arts and Humanities](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/arts-and-humanities/) · 16,039 works · [🗣️ Language and Linguistics](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/arts-and-humanities/language-and-linguistics/) · 15,891 works · [💭 Psychology](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/psychology/) · 1,552 works · [💭 Experimental and Cognitive Psychology](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/psychology/experimental-and-cognitive-psychology/) · 870 works 🧭 Topics (1): [English](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/english/) · 2,263 works ## Cite Cite as: Scott Baird. 1985. English Dialects in San Antonio. Names 33. The paper itself, not this page. BibTeX from the library's record of the work. ```bibtex @inproceedings{baird1985english, title = {{English Dialects in San Antonio}}, author = {Scott Baird}, booktitle = {Names 33}, year = {1985}, doi = {10.1179/nam.1985.33.4.232}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1179/nam.1985.33.4.232} } ``` - [← previous A Probabilistic Approach to Grammatical Analysis of Written English by Computer.](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/beale-1985-probabilistic-approach-grammatical-analysis-written/) - [↑ back to papers of 1985](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/1985/) ## References 3 references, 0 of them with a card of ours. ↗ leads to the work, «find» searches for one we have no id for yet. 1. Atwood, E. Bagby. The Regional Vocabulary of Texas. Austin: University of Texas Press. 1962. Baird, Scott. "Variety in English: Part 12" The Study of Current English XXXVII. 12.74-77. 1973. ---. Eigo Hoogen no Shosoo (Aspects of English Dialects). Translated into Japanese by Yoshihiro Matsumura. Tokyo: Kenkyusha Limited, Publishers. 1977. Chomsky, Noam. Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. Cambridge, Mass.: The M.LT. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Atwood%2C+E%2E+Bagby%2E+The+Regional+Vocabulary+of+Texas%2E+Austin%3A+University+of+Texas+Press%2E+1962%2E+Baird%2C+Scott%2E+%22Variety+in+English%3A+Part+12%22+The+Study+of+Current+English+XXXVII%2E+12%2E74%2D77%2E+1973%2E+%2D%2D%2D%2E+Eigo+) 2. Press. 1965. Gilbert, Glenn. (editor). Texas Studies in Bilingualism. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co. 1970. Goffman, Erving. Frame Analysis. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. 1974. Hamilton, Wesley H. "Phonological Variations Observed in San Antonio, Texas." The Journal of the Linguistic Association of the Southwest. 11:3,4.83-93. December 1977. Labov, William. The Social Stratification of English in New York City. Washington, D.C.: Center for Applied Linguistics. 1966. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Press%2E+1965%2E+Gilbert%2C+Glenn%2E+%28editor%29%2E+Texas+Studies+in+Bilingualism%2E+Berlin%3A+Walter+de+Gruyter+%26+Co%2E+1970%2E+Goffman%2C+Erving%2E+Frame+Analysis%2E+Cambridge%2C+Mass%2E%3A+Harvard+University+Press%2E+1974%2E+Hamilton%2C) 3. Sawyer, Janet. "A Dialect Study of San Antonio, Texas: A Bilingual Community." Diss. University of Texas, 1957. ---. "Aloofness from Spanish Influence in Texas English." Word 15.2.270-81. August 1959. Reprinted in Williamson and Burke as "The Speech of San Antonio, Texas." 1971. ---. "Social Aspects of Bilingualism in San Antonio, Texas." PADS 41.7-15. 1964. ---. "Spanish-English Bilingualism in San Antonio, Texas." in Gilbert. 1970. Underwood, Gary. "American English Dialectology: Alternatives for the Southwest." International Journal of the Sociology of Language. 2.19-40. 1975. Williamson, Juanita V. and Virginia M. Burke (editors). A Various Language: Perspectives on American Dialects. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. 1971. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Sawyer%2C+Janet%2E+%22A+Dialect+Study+of+San+Antonio%2C+Texas%3A+A+Bilingual+Community%2E%22+Diss%2E+University+of+Texas%2C+1957%2E+%2D%2D%2D%2E+%22Aloofness+from+Spanish+Influence+in+Texas+English%2E%22+Word+15%2E2%2E270%2D81%2E+August+1959%2E) *Updated 29 October 2026*