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Convergence and Contact in Milwaukee: Evidence From Select African American and White Vowel Space FeaturesUniversity of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA, tcpurnell{at}wisc.edu Past sociophonetic research on African American speakers of the Inland North dialect of American English suggests that speakers in the region do not participate in vowel changes observed among White speakers. Speaker identity to a pan—African American dialect has been often implied as militating against participation in White sound changes.Yet most of these studies analyze vowels as static and single data points, although vowels are known to be articulatorily and perceptually dynamic. It is unclear, then, whether situations involving phonetic convergence co-occur with different vowel properties than previously reported. This study investigates vowel dynamics (raising of vowel qualities and elongation of diphthongs) to test accommodation by Black speakers in southeastern Wisconsin toward White speakers. Results reveal that Black—White contact—either synchronically in an interview or diachronically from historical employment and housing discrimination—influences vowel-quality position and diphthong elongation in vowel space.
Key Words: accommodation • convergence • ethnicity • phonetics
This version was published on December
1, 2009 Journal of Language and Social Psychology, Vol. 28, No. 4,
408-427 (2009) |
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