scholarly journals Reconceptualizing the vowel space in analyzing regional dialect variation and sound change in American English

2017 ◽  
Vol 142 (1) ◽  
pp. 444-459 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Allen Fox ◽  
Ewa Jacewicz
Keyword(s):  
American English ◽  
Sound Change ◽  
Vowel Space ◽  
Dialect Variation ◽  
Regional Dialect

scholarly journals A Longitudinal Study of Very Young Children's Vowel Production

2014 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca W. McGowan ◽  
Richard S. McGowan ◽  
Margaret Denny ◽  
Susan Nittrouer
Keyword(s):  
American English ◽  
Vowel Production ◽  
Formant Frequency ◽  
Formant Frequencies ◽  
Vowel Space ◽  
Speech Data ◽  
Regional Dialect ◽  
Acoustic Analyses ◽  
English Dialect ◽  
Existing Data

Purpose Ecologically realistic, spontaneous, adult-directed, longitudinal speech data of young children were described by acoustic analyses. Method The first 2 formant frequencies of vowels produced by 6 children from different American English dialect regions were analyzed from ages 18 to 48 months. The vowels were from largely conversational contexts and were classified according to dictionary pronunciation. Results Within-subject formant frequency variability remained relatively constant for the span of ages studied. It was often difficult to detect overall decreases in the first 2 formant frequencies between ages 30 and 48 months. A study of the movement of the corner vowels with respect to the vowel centroid showed that the shape of the vowel space remained qualitatively constant from 30 through 48 months. Conclusions The shape of the vowel space is established early in life. Some aspects of regional dialect were observed in some of the subjects at 42 months of age. The present study adds to the existing data on the development of vowel spaces by describing ecologically realistic speech.

Hands off the metadata!: Comparing the use of explicit and background metadata in crowdsourced dialectology

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (s1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamsin Blaxter ◽  
David Britain
Keyword(s):  
Language Variation ◽  
Social Background ◽  
Smartphone Application ◽  
Background Information ◽  
British Isles ◽  
Language Variation And Change ◽  
Digital Era ◽  
The Social ◽  
Dialect Variation ◽  
Regional Dialect

Abstract In this article we assess the extent to which we can collect plausible data about regional dialect variation using crowdsourcing techniques – the BBC Future Survey – without explicitly gathering any user metadata, but relying instead on background information collected by Google Analytics. In order to do this, we compare this approach with another crowdsourced survey, operated from a smartphone application, which examines the same site – the British Isles – but which explicitly asks users to submit detailed social background information – the English Dialects App (EDA) (Leemann et al. 2018). The EDA has the disadvantage that there is a considerable user drop-off between completing the dialect survey and completing the social metadata questionnaire. The BBC Future Survey, however, only collects information on where users are physically located when they complete the survey – not where they are from or even where they live. Results show that the BBC Future Survey produces a plausible snapshot of regional dialect variability that can complement other more sophisticated (expensive, time-consuming) approaches to investigating language variation and change. We suggest the approach constitutes a digital-era rapid anonymous survey along the lines of Labov (1972), serving similar aims, with similar success, but on a much much larger scale.

Regional dialect perception across the lifespan: Identification and discrimination

2017 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth A. McCullough ◽  
Cynthia G. Clopper ◽  
Laura Wagner
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Young Children ◽  
New England ◽  
American English ◽  
Region Of Origin ◽  
Midwestern United States ◽  
Regional Dialects ◽  
Cognitive Difficulty ◽  
Regional Dialect

Although adult listeners can often identify a talker’s region of origin based on his or her speech, young children typically fail in dialect perception tasks, and little is known about the development of regional dialect representations from childhood into adulthood. This study explored listeners’ understanding of the indexical importance of American English regional dialects across the lifespan. Listeners between 4 and 79 years old in the Midwestern United States heard talkers from the Midland, Northern, Southern, and New England regions in two regional dialect perception tasks: identification and discrimination. The results showed that listeners as young as 4–5 years old understand the identity-marking significance of some regional dialects, although adult-like performance was not achieved until adolescence. Further, the findings suggest that regional dialect perception is simultaneously impacted by the specific dialects involved and the cognitive difficulty of the task.

Evaluating dialect in discourse: Teachers' and teenagers' responses to young English speakers in Wales

1999 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 321-354 ◽  
Author(s):  
PETER GARRETT ◽  
NIKOLAS COUPLAND ◽  
ANGIE WILLIAMS
Keyword(s):  
Cluster Analysis ◽  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
Multidimensional Scaling ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Additive Effects ◽  
School Students ◽  
Dialect Variation ◽  
Regional Dialect ◽  
English Dialect

School students (15–16 years) in six regions of Wales were recorded telling stories in their local English dialects. Some of these narratives were used as samples representing the main English dialect regions in Wales. Comparable groups of students (n = 169) and a group of teachers (n = 47) rated the audio-recorded speakers on a number of scales of affiliation, status, and Welshness. Statistical analysis of their ratings, employing cluster analysis and multidimensional scaling, made it possible to detect some of the competing or additive effects of dialect and narrative features. Judgments of “Welshness” of the speaker/narratives were grounded in the regional dialect properties; but other judgments, such as the likability of the speakers, tended to draw on features of both dialect and narrative. In addition, comparison of students and teachers revealed differences in their evaluations of particular dialect communities and the characteristics of the narratives. The findings illustrate the importance of approaching the analysis of dialect variation within the broader context of speech and discourse performance.

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