This book investigates the complex interplay of language discourse and variation in Marathon County, Wisconsin, USA. The combination of different research methods such as ethnographic observations, sociolinguistic interviews, and methods used in perceptual dialectology allows the meaning of language variation in Marathon County to be studied on different levels, i.e. how speakers position themselves within their speech community overtly through discourse and, more subtly, through their linguistic practices. Results show that Wisconsin English is becoming increasingly enregistered, a finding which none of the individual approaches to studying language discourse and variation in Marathon County reveals on their own. It is shown that a “Nortwoods persona” is beginning to evolve which links place, identity, and language use.

Sarah Braun has been a research assistant and Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Anglophone Studies at the University of Duisburg–Essen from 2016-2020. Her research focuses on the interface of non-linguists' perceptions of language variation and their language production in central Wisconsin, USA. She finished her PhD in 2020 and currently does not work in academia.