Ethnic, Stylistic and Perceptual Aspects of the Southern Vowel Shift

Board Of Regents, Nshe, Obo University Of Nevada, Reno, Reno NV

Investigators

Abstract

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Valerie Fridland will conduct two years of linguistic research on vowel shifts in Southern dialects of American English. She will compare recent changes in Southern vowels to both older Southern speech and contemporary Northern speech. Recent research suggests that vocalic positions in Northern and Southern speech are realigning. The systems resulting from this realignment suggest increasing divergence between the two dialects. Using Memphis as a field site, Fridland's research team will collect both naturally occurring conversational data and elicited interview data and analyze the acoustic position of vowels in those data. Perceptual tests will measure the acoustic positioning of the vowels and the attitudinal load associated with changes in individual vowels. By examining the social embedding and the perceptual salience of each shifted vowel class, this project will assess the internal (regional) and external (national) pressures affecting dialect variation and determine how incoming norms are judged and how they function as displays of local, ethnic, or national identity for speakers. Shared speech norms generally suggest that speakers participate in the same communication networks. Thus, an important part of this research is its documentation of whether both European-Americans and African-Americans participate in the changes, an indication of racial integration in the Memphis area. African-Americans do not appear to participate in the vocalic changes identified in Northern cities, but their role in the changes affecting Southern speech might explain the origin of some changes in the Northern African-American vowel system. This sociolinguistic research will contribute to the emerging picture of contemporary Southern speech and speech perceptions. This is significant for both education and theory. First, Southern speech is stereotyped as non-standard nationally. Understanding local norms and the perceptions behind them is crucial to national testing in education. On an applied level then, the research has implications for language specialists and educators concerned with how dialect variation relates to educational and social disadvantages. Second, this survey of changes in contemporary Southern English will document convergence and divergence in dialects and reveal the social motivation of some sound changes. On a theoretical level, the research will provide insight into the mechanisms behind linguistic change, one of the fundamental questions driving sociolinguistic research.