Dialect Evolution and Ongoing Variable Linguistic Input: Production and Perception of the English spoken in the Pacific Northwest

美国西北部（包括华盛顿州）是印第安人、欧洲人、亚洲人和其他影响的丰富历史的产物。太平洋西北英语（PNWE）项目探讨了该地区英语方言混合和发展的程度。太平洋西北部的故事是一个不断定居和移民的故事。尽管可以找到一些历史上孤立的社区，但大多数西北人生活在他们的声音与不同背景的人混杂在一起的地方。在刘易斯和克拉克历史性地航行到太平洋海岸200年后，华盛顿大学的研究人员问道：西北地区建立的时间是否足够长，足以拥有独特的方言特征？持续不断的移民历史是否使它成为美国最真实的大熔炉？美洲原住民、非洲裔美国人、墨西哥裔美国人和盎格鲁裔美国人之间的接触对这个地区的语言有多大影响？这个项目考察了华盛顿人说话的方式，并探讨了听众（来自PNW和其他地方）对PNWE讲话的反应。语音数据将从华盛顿州农村和城市地区出生的受试者中收集。来自三代讲话者的数据使我们能够考察其随时间变化的进程。这项研究采用了定量的社会语音学方法，可以测量我们说话时产生的声音信号。特别有趣的是PNWE中出现的一系列发音变化，其中包括出现在单词BEG和BAG中的元音在这种英语变体中都发生了变化，以与BAKE中的元音押韵。这种类型的变化抓住了语言变化的一个微妙但重要的方面。虽然这个地区的说话者听不到自己产生这些差异，但这些差异标志着他们的讲话，而且“大”到足以让来自其他地区的听众感到困惑。语言学家对这种现象很感兴趣，因为它揭示了语言是如何变化的，以及语言发生变化需要多长时间，这些都低于人类意识的水平。更广泛的影响是多样而强烈的。学生研究人员将获得宝贵的经验，在社会语言学的实地考察和科学的语言变化分析。研究人员将从广泛的少数民族中挑选，包括在语言学研究中代表性不足的美国原住民。一般社会对当地英语的多样性有相当大的兴趣。该地区发言人的口述历史和声音片段以及其他数据将被纳入一个免费供公众访问的网站。

The Northwestern United States (including Washington state) is the product of a rich history of Native American, European, Asian, and other influences. The Pacific Northwest English (PNWE) project explores the extent of English dialect mixture and development in this region. The story of the Pacific Northwest is one of constant settlement and immigration. Although a few pockets of historically-isolated communities can be found, most Northwesterners live in places where their voices intermingle with people of different backgrounds.Two hundred years after Lewis and Clark's historic voyage to the Pacific coast, researchers at the University of Washington ask: has the Northwest been established long enough to have unique dialect features? Has the history of ongoing settlement made it the truest of American melting-pots? How much has contact between Native-Americans, African-Americans, Mexican-Americans and Anglo-Americans shaped the speech of this region?This project examines the way Washingtonians speak, and explores how listeners (from the PNW and elsewhere) react to PNWE speech. Speech data will be collected from Washington-born subjects in both rural and urban parts of the state. Data from three generations of speakers allows examination of the progression of change over time. This study employs quantitative Sociophonetic methods that allow measurement of the acoustic signal produced when we speak. Of particular interest are a set of sound changes that appear to be focused in PNWE, including one in which vowels such as appear in the words BEG and BAG are both shifting in this variety of English to rhyme with the vowel in BAKE. This type of change captures a subtle but important aspect of linguistic change. Though speakers in this region do not hear themselves producing these differences, such differences mark their speech, and are "big" enough differences to confuse listeners from other regions. This type of phenomenon is of interest to linguists, because it sheds light on how languages change, and on long it takes for language change to take place, all below the level of human consciousness.The Broader Impacts are varied and strong. Student researchers will gain valuable experience in sociolinguistic fieldwork and the scientific analysis of language variation. The researchers will be drawn from a wide range of ethnic minorities, including native Americans, which have been underrepresented in linguistic research. There is considerable interest among the general community in the topic of varieties of English in the local area. Oral histories and sound clips from speakers from the region, as well as other data, will be included in a website freely available for public access.