The Changing Language of Chatham County

Come find out what the team from the Language and Life Project at NC State has learned so far from their interviews with your Chatham County friends and neighbors!

In the summer of 2019, the Language and Life Project (LLP), in cooperation with the Chatham County Historical Association started conducting interviews to study and archive changing language and life in Chatham County. The project team has now completed more than 40 interviews with speakers ranging from to 16 to 100 years of age, and plan to complete more than 100 interviews over the next year.

While the main goal of the NC State team is to study the changing language of life-long county residents, the project will also save the stories of those residents about life in Chatham County—providing a rich historical resource for the future.

At the February 23rd program, the LLP team, under the direction of Walt Wolfram, will discuss the progress of the Chatham project so far, offer some samples, and discuss possible ways that the oral histories and other products in this cooperative effort might be shared.

We are fortunate that the Language and Life Project chose Chatham for this intensive study. The 100+ interviews of Chatham residents of all ages and backgrounds will not only preserve Chatham’s unique language traditions but also will provide a window into the lives of long-time residents.

The CCHA invites everyone to the program on Sunday, February 23 at 2:00pm in the Historic Chatham County Courthouse. We think you’ll be interested in this sneak-peek at the project’s progress. You might even decide to sign up to take part!