Participation Type
Paper
Presentation #1 Title
Vowels in West Virginia: Shifting Identity through Vowel Space
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
Though dialects in Appalachia are widely noted, data on major changes to vowel systems is more limited. Through sociophonetic analysis, We focus our research on major vowel systems in West Virginia and their changes over time and between dialect regions. We analyze data from 67 speakers in the West Virginia Corpus of English in Appalachia and from our own research assistants. We have found that the back vowels /u/ and /o/, as in boot [but] and boat [bot], are fronting in Appalachian vowel space. For the South, these changes are part of the Southern Vowel Shift, yet the front-vowel component of this shift is highly variable for our speakers. Diversity amongst vowel systems demonstrates a diversity of identities, and evolving vowel systems are part of the evolution of the southern Appalachian identity. The question we address is why some people adopt more socially salient components of the Southern Vowel Shift, but others do not. We apply sociolinguistic analysis to Appalachian speakers’ vowel systems in order to reveal the identity alignments they have made.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Kirk Hazen is Professor of Linguistics at WVU.
Vowels in West Virginia: Shifting Identity through Vowel Space
Though dialects in Appalachia are widely noted, data on major changes to vowel systems is more limited. Through sociophonetic analysis, We focus our research on major vowel systems in West Virginia and their changes over time and between dialect regions. We analyze data from 67 speakers in the West Virginia Corpus of English in Appalachia and from our own research assistants. We have found that the back vowels /u/ and /o/, as in boot [but] and boat [bot], are fronting in Appalachian vowel space. For the South, these changes are part of the Southern Vowel Shift, yet the front-vowel component of this shift is highly variable for our speakers. Diversity amongst vowel systems demonstrates a diversity of identities, and evolving vowel systems are part of the evolution of the southern Appalachian identity. The question we address is why some people adopt more socially salient components of the Southern Vowel Shift, but others do not. We apply sociolinguistic analysis to Appalachian speakers’ vowel systems in order to reveal the identity alignments they have made.
