Prosodic and segmental cues to regional dialect variation in American English

2017 ◽  
Vol 142 (4) ◽  
pp. 2679-2679
Author(s):  
Rajka Smiljanic ◽  
Cynthia G. Clopper
Keyword(s):  
American English ◽  
Dialect Variation ◽  
Regional Dialect

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.

The effects of dialect variation on speech intelligibility in a multitalker background

2014 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 729-746 ◽  
Author(s):  
EWA JACEWICZ ◽  
ROBERT ALLEN FOX
Keyword(s):  
Speech Intelligibility ◽  
American English ◽  
Noise Levels ◽  
Dialect Variation ◽  
Southern American English ◽  
Babble Noise ◽  
Phonetic Features

ABSTRACTSpeech intelligibility in a multitalker background can be affected by the language of both the talker and the interfering speech. This study investigated whether this interaction is modulated by dialect variations of the same language. American English listeners were presented with target sentences in either their own General American English (GAE) or a different accent (Southern American English [SAE]) masked by either GAE or SAE two-talker babble at three sound to noise ratios (SNRs): +3, 0, and –3 dB. All speech materials were produced by male talkers. Across all conditions, SAE target was more intelligible than GAE. Intelligibility of either target decreased as the level of the interfering babble noise increased. Target accent interacted with masking accent: at +3 dB SNR, GAE (and not SAE) was the more effective masker. The target-masker interaction was different as listening conditions deteriorated: at 0 and –3 dB SNR, masking accent did not affect GAE target, but when the target was SAE, the SAE masker (and not GAE) was more effective. Thus, at increased noise levels, listeners benefited from the mismatch between the target and masking accents only when the target was in a nonnative accent. These results demonstrate that dialect variation can influence listeners’ performance in a multitalker environment. The apparent asymmetry in intelligibility of accents may be in part related to dialect-specific prosodic and phonetic features.

Children's perception of dialect variation

2013 ◽  
Vol 41 (5) ◽  
pp. 1062-1084 ◽  
Author(s):  
LAURA WAGNER ◽  
CYNTHIA G. CLOPPER ◽  
JOHN K. PATE
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Rich Source ◽  
Social Connections ◽  
Gradient Representation ◽  
Dialect Variation ◽  
Regional Dialect ◽  
Perceptual Skill ◽  
Source Of Information

ABSTRACTA speaker's regional dialect is a rich source of information about that person. Two studies examined five- to six-year-old children's perception of regional dialect: Can they perceive differences among dialects? Have they made meaningful social connections to specific dialects? Experiment 1 asked children to categorize speakers into groups based on their accent; Experiment 2 asked them to match speakers to (un)familiar cultural items. Each child was tested with two of the following: the child's Home dialect, a Regional variant of that dialect, and a Second-Language variant. Results showed that children could successfully categorize only with a Home vs. Second-Language dialect contrast, but could reliably link cultural items with either a Home vs. Second-Language or a Regional vs. Second-Language dialect contrast. These results demonstrate five- to six-year-old children's developing perceptual skill with dialect, and suggest that they have a gradient representation of dialect variation.

Dialect variation and phonological knowledge: Phonological representations and metalinguistic awareness among beginning readers who speak nonmainstream American English

2012 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 155-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
NICOLE PATTON TERRY
Keyword(s):  
American English ◽  
Reading Acquisition ◽  
Beginning Readers ◽  
Second Grade ◽  
Metalinguistic Awareness ◽  
Standard English ◽  
Regression Analyses ◽  
Phonological Representations ◽  
Phonological Knowledge ◽  
Dialect Variation

ABSTRACTChildren's spoken nonmainstream American English (NMAE) dialect use and their knowledge about phonological representations of word pronunciations were assessed in a sample of 105 children in kindergarten through second grade. Children were given expressive and receptive tasks with dialect-sensitive stimuli. Students who produced many NMAE features in speech nonetheless demonstrated considerable knowledge of “standard” English forms on the tasks, and their phonological representations were not deficient. In regression analyses, an inverse relationship between NMAE use and reading skill was observed, but mediated by phonological awareness. The findings are inconsistent with the view that print–speech mismatches interfere with young NMAE speakers’ reading acquisition, and instead suggest that dialect variation among beginning readers reflects metalinguistic differences that influence reading acquisition.

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