Missouri lies at a regional crossroads where the Midwest meets the South and the West begins. The contemporary dialect picture of the state reflects this blend of influences. Depending on their backgrounds, Missourians may share speech features with Chicagoans, Kentuckians, or Californians. The authors explore the history behind this current linguistic variation by listening to the voices of Missourians born between the 1880s and the 1930s. Drawing on a corpus of archival recordings, this book documents the unique linguistic features that characterized Missouri dialects over a century ago. State-of-the-art techniques in sociophonetics are applied to track patterns in pronunciation with a focus on regional differences related to vowel sounds. The study presents detailed examinations of several vocalic mergers and chain shifts heard today in various regional dialects. The evidence uncovered in the speech of older Missourians challenges prevailing ideas about the history of these particular features and about the origins and spread of sound change more generally. In addition to providing insight into the development of Missouri English and other American dialects, the book serves as a model for the application of large-scale sociophonetic analysis to the study of language history.
Les mer
Working with archival recordings, the authors trace the history of Missouri English and demonstrate how the voices of Missourians born over a century ago provide a unique window on the development of many of the pronunciation features that separate modern American dialects.
Les mer
Chapter 1. Missouri: History and DialectologyChapter 2. Historical SociophoneticsChapter 3. Automated Formant Estimation and Old RecordingsChapter 4. Materials and Methods of AnalysisChapter 5. The Pin-Pen MergerChapter 6. The Low-Back Vowel MergerChapter 7. force, north, and startChapter 8. The Southern ShiftChapter 9. The Northern Cities Shift and the Low-Back-Vowel Merger ShiftChapter 10. What’s in a Vowel? The Pronunciation of MissouriChapter 11. Wrapping Up and Looking Forward
Les mer

Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9781498597265
Publisert
2023-12-06
Utgiver
Vendor
Lexington Books
Vekt
630 gr
Høyde
236 mm
Bredde
159 mm
Dybde
24 mm
Aldersnivå
P, 06
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet
Antall sider
328

Biographical note

Christopher Strelluf is associate professor of linguistics at the University of Warwick.

Matthew J. Gordon is professor of English at the University of Missouri, Columbia.