More evidence for major vowel change change in the south

Feagin, Crawford

doi:10.1075/cilt.53.10fea

Cited by 57 publications

(28 citation statements)

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“…Some areas of the South show a similar spectral trend for the high front classes, though this shift is typically not as extensive (Fridland, 1999;. While the NCS pattern shows advancement in younger speakers, SVS features appear to be receding in most urban areas (Baranowski, 2008;Dodsworth and Kohn, 2012;Feagin, 1986;Fridland, 2001;Prichard, 2010) with younger speakers showing weaker participation in the front vowel tense/lax shift. As in the North, Southern low vowels remain distinct, in part due to an upglided /O/ class, though younger speakers show evidence of greater nucleus overlap and decreasing glide differentiation (Jacewicz et al, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 83%

“…Spectral differences in vowel realization across American dialects have been widely documented by sociolinguists over the last 25 years (e.g., Eckert, 1988Eckert, , 2000Feagin, 1986;Fridland, 1999Fridland, , 2001Fridland and Bartlett, 2006;Gordon, 2005;Labov, 1991Labov, , 1994Thomas, 1989Thomas, , 1997Thomas, , 2001. Regional variation in duration, in contrast, has been much less intensively studied.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Durational and spectral differences in American English vowels: Dialect variation within and across regions

Fridland

Kendall

Farrington

2014

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

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Spectral differences among varieties of American English have been widely studied, typically recognizing three major regionally diagnostic vowel shift patterns [Labov, Ash, and Boberg (2006). The Atlas of North American English: Phonetics, Phonology and Sound Change (De Gruyter, Berlin)]. Durational variability across dialects, on the other hand, has received relatively little attention. This paper investigates to what extent regional differences in vowel duration are linked with spectral changes taking place in the Northern, Western, and Southern regions of the U.S. Using F1/F2 and duration measures, the durational correlates of the low back vowel merger, characteristic of Western dialects, and the acoustic reversals of the front tense/lax vowels, characteristic of Southern dialects, are investigated. Results point to a positive correlation between spectral overlap and vowel duration for Northern and Western speakers, suggesting that both F1/F2 measures and durational measures are used for disambiguation of vowel quality. The findings also indicate that, regardless of region, a durational distinction maintains the contrast between the low back vowel classes, particularly in cases of spectral merger. Surprisingly, Southerners show a negative correlation for the vowel shifts most defining of contemporary Southern speech, suggesting that neither spectral position nor durational measures are the most relevant cues for vowel quality in the South.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 83%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Durational and spectral differences in American English vowels: Dialect variation within and across regions

Fridland

Kendall

Farrington

2014

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

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“…For speakers in the North, NCS affected systems typically show backed and/or lowered short front (/I/ and /ɛ/) vowels, raised /ae/ and peripheral front tense (/i/ and /e/) classes (Gordon, 1997(Gordon, , 2002Labov, 1994;Labov et al, 2006). In contrast, in the South, systems affected by the SVS show strong /e/ centralization and /ɛ/ peripheralization which sometimes results in the acoustic overlap or reversal of these vowels (Feagin, 1986;Fridland, 1998Fridland, , 2000Fridland, , 2001Labov, 1991Labov, , 1994Labov, , 2001Labov et al, 2006;Thomas, 2001). In some areas of the South (mainly Appalachia), there is similar reversal found for the high front vowels (/i/ and /I/), though this is less common.…”

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confidence: 86%

Exploring the relationship between production and perception in the mid front vowels of U.S. English

Fridland

Kendall

2012

Lingua

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“…Many subsequent researchers have reported the predominant use of the monophthong variant for the South as a whole (Kurath and McDavid 1961;Labov, Yeager and Steiner 1972;Labov 1991), while others have highlighted its use in specific places in the South: Arkansas (Hoff 1968), North Carolina (Morgan 1971), Alabama (Feagin 1986), Missouri (Mock 1991); there has been extensive description of the feature in Texas (Norman 1971;Bailey et al 1991;Thomas 1997).…”

Section: The Monophthongal Variant Of(ai) In Cajun Englishmentioning

confidence: 95%

From Accent to Marker in Cajun English

Dubois

Horvath

1998

EWW

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The English of bilingual Cajuns living in southern Louisiana has been described as an accented variety of English, the result of interference from French. In order to investigate this proposition, we present a variationist study of four features of Cajun English: 1) the interdental fricatives /θ, ð7 realized by the dental stops [t, d]; 2) the failure to aspirate the stops /p, t, k/; 3) the monophthongization of /ai/ and 4) vowel nasalization. The data for this study are taken from the Cajun French/ English Sociolinguistic Survey; the survey has confirmed that English has become dominant in these communities over the last two generations. A sub-sample of 28 speakers, divided by gender into three age groups, is taken from St Landry Parish. If interference from French is the source of these features of Cajun English, we would expect a steady decrease in frequency over apparent time so that these vernacular features will be used more frequently by the older and less frequently by the middle-aged and least of all by the younger generation. The results of GoldVarb analysis of the variables show a complex interrelationship of age, gender and social network. All of the variables studied followed the expected pattern; the old generation use more of the vernacular variants than all others; the middle-aged dramatically decrease their use of the vernacular but the young generation exhibit a number of complex patterns in their use of the vernacular features. Interestingly the young follow the decreasing pattern for (p, t, k) but they show a level of usage for the other variables closer to the old generation so that there is a v-shaped age pattern rather than a pattern showing a steady decrease of the so-called accented features of Cajun English. We argue that although the vernacular forms produced by the older group can be considered part of an ethnic accent, they play a very 1) The first author acknowledges the support of the National Science Foundation (SBR-9514831). We want to acknowledge the contribution of the following research assistants: different role in the younger generation which can be attributed both to French language attrition and to the on-going blossoming of a Cajun cultural renaissance. Being Cajun is now socially and economically advantageous; the younger generation, unlike the middle-aged, take pride in their Cajun identity. The functions of French for people under 40 years old have been significantly reduced so that it is now generally limited to the family domain and even more restricted in that it is used primarily in speaking with older members of the extended family. Given this situation, the only linguistic way to signal "Cajunness" is left to English.

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More evidence for major vowel change change in the south

Cited by 57 publications

References 0 publications

Durational and spectral differences in American English vowels: Dialect variation within and across regions

Durational and spectral differences in American English vowels: Dialect variation within and across regions

Exploring the relationship between production and perception in the mid front vowels of U.S. English

From Accent to Marker in Cajun English

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