Dissertation Research: The Role of Southern Vowels in Ethnic Diversity

该项目的目标是描述北卡罗来纳州沃伦县三个族裔社区的社会语言学和民族语言学界限：非裔美国人社区、美洲原住民社区和欧洲裔美国人社区。社区之间关系的复杂性为研究种族界限对语言变化和变异的影响提供了一个理想的社会语言学实验室。 将进行元音的声学分析，以查明方言间和方言内的变异，并对一组社会和语言变异进行定量的协方差研究，将提供重叠但独特的方言系统的概况。将使用社会语言学家/本地实地工作人员团队对所有三个社区的成员进行采访，以扩大目前的发言者语料库，其中目前包括 36 名沃伦县发言者。 该项目将提供与当今社会语言学的三个主要问题相关的数据和分析。首先，研究将提供有关南方语言认同状况的最新和完善的信息。其次，定量和定性分析将更仔细地研究非裔美国人白话英语（AAVE）和欧美白话英语（EAVE）之间可能存在的趋同或分歧。在大城市进行的研究揭示了社会对白话英语的变化和变化的影响；沃伦县的三种族社区提供了与农业农村社区截然不同的社会状况。美洲原住民社区与当地 AAVE 或 EAVE 语言社区相对于单独的方言身份可能存在的趋同和分歧，也将为沃伦县美洲原住民社区满足联邦认可法规的努力提供重要证据。独特的方言可能会让人相信美洲原住民社区的文化多样性。第三，沃伦县言论的数据和分析将使整个语言界对种族边界和语言变异的本质有更清晰的认识。沃伦县种族边界的社会环境为语言变异提供了不同的、多样化的、文化丰富的视角。

The goal of the project is provide an account of the sociolinguistic and ethnolinguistic boundaries for the three ethnic communities in Warren County, NC: the African-American community, the Native-American community, and the European-American community. The complex nature of the relationships between the communities offers an ideal sociolinguistic laboratory for examining the effects of ethnic boundaries on language change and variation. Acoustic analysis of vowels will be conducted to pinpoint inter- and intradialectal variation, and quantitatively based covariance studies of a set of social and linguistic varieties will provide a profile of the overlapping but distinctive dialect systems. Interviews with members of all three communities will be conducted using sociolinguist/native fieldworker teams to augment the present corpus of speakers, which presently includes 36 Warren County speakers. The project will provide data and analysis relating to three major issues in sociolinguistics today. First, research will provide current and refined information on the state of Southern linguistic identity. Second, quantitative and qualitative analysis will provide a closer look at the possible convergence or divergence between African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) and European-American Vernacular English (EAVE). Studies done in large, urban cities reveal social influences on the variation and change of vernacular English; the triracial community of Warren county offers a vastly different social situation, that of an agriculturally based rural community. The possible convergence and divergence of the Native American community with either the local AAVE or EAVE speech communities, vis-a-vis a separate dialectal identity, will also provide crucial evidence pertaining to the attempts of the Warren County Native American community to meet regulations for federal recognition. A distinctive dialect may lend credence to claims of cultural diversity for the Native American community. Third, data and analysis of Warren County speech will provide the linguistic community at large with a clearer view of the nature of ethnic boundaries and language variation. The social setting of Warren County's ethnic boundaries offers a different, diverse, and culturally rich perspective on language variation.