LINGUIST List 25.3167
Mon
Aug 04 2014
Diss: English;
Sociolinguistics: Strelluf: ' ''We have such a
normal, non-accented voice'': A sociophonetic
study of English in Kansas City '
Editor for this issue:
Danuta Allen <danutalinguistlist.org>
Date: 03-Aug-2014
From: Christopher Strelluf
<cstrell
nwmissouri.edu>
Subject: ''We have such a
normal, non-accented voice'': A sociophonetic
study of English in Kansas City
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Institution: University of Missouri at
Columbia
Program: Linguistics Program
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2014
Author: Christopher Strelluf
Dissertation Title: "We have such a normal,
non-accented voice": A sociophonetic study of
English in Kansas City
Dissertation URL:
http://catpages.nwmissouri.edu/m/cstrell/diss/strelluf2014.pdf
Linguistic Field(s): Sociolinguistics
Subject Language(s):
English (eng)
Dissertation Director:
Matthew J. Gordon
Dissertation Abstract:
This research explores the vowel system of
Kansas City, a large metropolitan community
spanning the borders
of Missouri and Kansas in the Midwestern United
States. Using acoustic measurements from
interviews with
fifty-one Kansas Citians, this research builds
a phonetic profile of the English in Kansas
City and identifies a
number of emerging changes in the dialect.
Changes are explored for correlations with
speaker birth year, sex,
and socioeconomic class.
Of particular interest are historically
distinct vowel classes that may be undergoing
merger. The vowels in
words like LOT and THOUGHT are argued to have
undergone a phonemic merger that is complete
among
speakers born in the 1990s. Front short vowels
that occur before nasal consonants--as in words
like PIN and
PEN--showed movement toward merger among
speakers born before 1975, but the trend
appears to have
reversed among young speakers. Back vowels that
occur before /l/ in words like POOL, BULL, and
BOWL are
variably merged for Kansas Citians, but young
speakers show a trend toward merging BOWL and
BULL.
Also of interest are vowels that appear to be
changing because of structural connections with
other vowels. In
particular, the vowel in words like TRAP
appears to be moving backwards as a result of
LOT’s merger with
TRAP. On the other hand, the vowel in MOUTH
shows signs of moving backward in vowel space,
despite the
continued fronting of the similar back vowels
in words like GOOSE and GOAT.
Finally, several incipient changes in the vowel
system are identified. These include backing of
the vowel in
STRUT and “Canadian raising” of the vowel in
PRICE. In total, these changes represent a
significant
restructuring of the phonological system of
Kansas City. The research explores structural
and dialectological
implications of these changes.
Page Updated: 04-Aug-2014