LINGUIST List 26.3
Fri Jan 02 2015
Diss: English; Phonetics, Sociolinguistics: Holland: 'Shifting or Shifted? The State of California Vowels'
Editor for this issue: Danuta Allen <danutalinguistlist.org>
Date: 24-Dec-2014
From: Cory Holland <Cory.Holland
colostate.edu>
Subject: Shifting or Shifted? The State of California Vowels
E-mail this message to a friend Institution: University of California, Davis
Program: Department of Linguistics
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2014
Author: Cory Holland
Dissertation Title: Shifting or Shifted? The State of California Vowels
Linguistic Field(s): Phonetics
Sociolinguistics
Subject Language(s):
English (eng) Dissertation Director:
Robert Bayley
Travis G. Bradley
Valerie M. Fridland
Dissertation Abstract:
Vowel variation and change in American English is well studied and well established in the Eastern portion of the United States, but less so in the West. California is by far the most populous state in the West and the subject of a majority of the studies of vowel variation and change in the West. However, very few of these studies focus on regions other than the urban coastal cities. These studies of urban coastal California have found that the California vowel space is, or at least has been, changing, termed the “California Vowel Shift” (CVS). Additionally, most studies of vowel variation and change are conducted amongst populations with homogenous ethnicities or first languages. This study of vowel variation and change extends investigation of the CVS away from urban coastal California and to speakers outside of the prototypical – white English-monolingual Californian – participant in the CVS. This study is located in a University community in California's Central Valley and participants were recruited to be representative of the demographics of the community. In total 65 speakers between the ages of 18 and 56 are included, of whom 54% self-report a non-white ethnicity and 32% report speaking a language other than English at home. A lack of evidence for change in apparent time in the majority of vowel features implicated in the CVS suggests that the California vowel space may be reaching a point of stability. Also, the speakers in this community are found to participate in the CVS in substantially similar ways, calling into question assumptions about the necessity of homogeneity of ethnicity and language in the formation of a dialect community.
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