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）是美洲原住民、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）项目探讨英语方言混合和发展在这一地区的程度。太平洋西北部的故事是一个不断定居和移民的故事。尽管在历史上可以找到一些孤立的社区，但大多数西北人生活在他们的声音与不同背景的人混合的地方。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：西北地区是否建立了足够长的时间来拥有独特的方言特征？持续不断的定居历史使它成为美国最真实的熔炉吗？美洲原住民、非洲裔美国人、墨西哥裔美国人和英裔美国人之间的接触在多大程度上塑造了这个地区的语言？这个项目研究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演讲的反应。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。来自三代说话者的数据允许检查随着时间的推移而变化的进展。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学信号。特别有趣的是，PNWE中出现了一系列的声音变化，其中包括单词BEG和BAG中出现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没有听到自己产生这些差异，但这些差异标志着他们的讲话，并且是“大”到足以混淆其他地区的听众的差异。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，以及语言变化发生的时间，所有这些都在人类意识的水平之下。更广泛的影响是多样的，而且很强。 学生研究人员将获得社会语言学实地考察和语言变异的科学分析的宝贵经验。研究人员将来自广泛的少数民族，包括土著美国人，这在语言研究中一直代表不足。 一般社区对当地英语变体的主题有相当大的兴趣。该区域发言者的口述历史和录音片段以及其他数据将被列入一个网站，供公众免费查阅。

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.