Doctoral Dissertation Research: The English of American Indians in New York City

本论文项目将调查纽约市方言地区的美洲印第安人所讲的英语，以更好地了解他们创造的泛印第安民族语言身份。更一般地说，该项目利用技术和方法创新来探索语言和不同层次的身份之间的关系，特别是通过社会显着的语音变化表达的关系。这项研究将把美洲印第安英语 (AIE) 的研究从与世隔绝的农村带入城市，如今超过一半的美洲印第安人居住在城市。之前的学术研究主要基于 20 世纪 70 年代农村社区的实地调查，声称每个部落都有特定版本的美国印第安英语，并且不同变种之间的借用并没有发生。最近关于类似社区的学术研究对这些结论提出了挑战。拟议的研究将添加新的证据以更好地理解这场辩论。由于城市印度人更有可能被视为单一的泛种族群体，因此假设他们正在发展泛印度英语特征，而不是过去对印度农村社区的研究中发现的部落特定特征。说话者在泛民族网络中的整合度越高，他们就越有可能使用美式印第安英语的相同特征。与此同时，那些对自己的纽约身份有强烈依恋的说话者预计会更大程度地使用纽约市的英语特征。融入纽约市美洲印第安人社交网络的 25 名成年演讲者将接受采访。使用工具社会语音学分析来检查的语音特征包括纽约市英语的一个传统特征，即“caught”中元音的升高和内滑，以及两个在各种 AIE 中传播的特征：独特的韵律节奏，以及用声门塞音取代清口音塞音 /p、t、k/。

This dissertation project will investigate the English spoken by American Indians in the New York City dialect area to better understand their creation of a pan-Indian ethnolinguistic identity. More generally, this project uses technological and methodological innovations to explore the relationship between language and different levels of identity, particularly as expressed through socially salient phonetic variation. The research will take the study of American Indian English (AIE) out of rural isolation and into the city, where over half of all American Indians live today. Previous scholarship, mostly based on fieldwork from the 1970s in rural communities, claimed that each tribe had a particular version of American Indian English, and borrowing between varieties did not occur. More recent scholarship on similar communities challenges these conclusions. The proposed study will add new evidence to better understand this debate. Because urban Indians are more likely to identify as a single panethnic group, the hypothesis is that they are developing pan-Indian English features, as opposed to the tribe-specific features found in past studies of rural Indian communities. The more integrated that speakers are in the panethnic network, the more likely they are to use the same features of American Indian English. At the same time, those speakers with a strong attachment to their New York identity are expected to use New York City English features to a greater extent. Twenty-five adult speakers who are integrated into the New York City American Indian social network will be interviewed. The phonological features to be examined using instrumental sociophonetic analysis include one traditional feature of New York City English, namely the raising and in-gliding of the vowel in "caught", and two features suggested to be spreading among varieties of AIE: a distinctive prosodic rhythm, and the replacement of the voiceless oral stops /p, t, k/ with glottal stops.