Louisburg
is located at the intersection of North Carolina's Tar River and
the newly expanded U.S. 401. It is the seat of Franklin County
(the county most immediately north-east of Wake County), and is
less than an hour-long drive from Raleigh, Durham, a nd the Research
Triangle.
Linguistically,
Louisburg and the Franklin County area provide an exceptional
opportunity for dialect studies. Originally settled in the early
1700's by groups from the Tidewater regions of North Carolina
and Virginia, Louisburg is uniquely situated at t he intersection
of several European settlement patterns and, consequently, the
intersection of several dialect regions. Today, rapid growth in
the area also provides us with an exceptional opportunity to study
rapid language change in progress. While po pulation statistics
show that the actual town of Louisburg, the largest in Franklin
County, has only grown by about 150 people in the last ten years,
the county, on the other hand, has grown as much in this time
as it had in the last sixty-a more than fif teen percent increase.
Meanwhile,
a more dramatic population expansion in the RDU/Research Triangle
area has many metropolitan practices encroaching on those of the
traditional, native population of Franklin County, including the
county's dialect. Current evidence, from sociol inguistic interviews
conducted by the North Carolina Language and Life Project, suggests
that while older members of many of the traditional families of
Franklin County have some unique local vernacular qualities, many
of the younger members of these fami lies are beginning to adopt
more standard dialect features.
Long-time
residents caught in the transition are scrambling to preserve
their heritage. One such effort is the Person Place Preservation
Society, a group dedicated not only to the care and conservation
of the historic Person family home, but also to the documentation
and celebration of local history and traditions as well.
We are very
grateful to the Person Place Preservation Society for introducing
us to this community and very happy to have the opportunity to
coordinate our dialect preservation efforts with their Voices
of the Century Project.
