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<font size="+1">Labov has done a lot of work on many different social
groups in Pennsylvania, because that's where he works/worked. Why not
ask him if he did anything on (r)? Have a look at his home page -
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~wlabov/home.html">http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~wlabov/home.html</a> - and explore a bit via
Google. <br>
Dick<br>
</font><br>
Lynn Goldstein wrote:
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cite="midfc.006640e0035038e83b9aca00a953a04e.3503914@miis.edu"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">
The subjects were not just African American but from different races,
occupations (within the stores), ages, genders..... He asked for where
something was located that happened to be on the fourth floor( to get the
final r and the r within the word) and he pretended not to hear so they
had to repeat fourth floor .
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:edling@ccat.sas.upenn.edu">edling@ccat.sas.upenn.edu</a> on Sunday, February 13, 2005 at 8:37 PM +0000
wrote:
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<pre wrap="">I'm not sure about Philly in particular, but one of the quintessential
studies
is Bill Labov's study in NYC 1972, where he went to 3 department stores
(Saks -
super expensive, Macy's - Average, and Klein's (? I think?) - like
K-Mart) and
asked clerks where to find certain items, all of which were located on the
fourth floor. The idea was to see how often they dropped the R to make it
"foath
floah" in each location, in attempt to correlate pronunciation with social
class. I believe all the subjects were African American (someone correct
me if
I'm wrong.) It's neither recent nor in Philadelphia, but a good starting
point.
Here's the reference:
Labov, W. (1972). Sociolingusitic patterns. Philadelphia, University of
Pennsylvania Press.
Good luck,
Laura
Quoting <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:ellism2@sas.upenn.edu:">ellism2@sas.upenn.edu:</a>
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<pre wrap="">I am doing some research on African American /r/ vocalization patterns
</pre>
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<pre wrap="">in
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">Philadelphia. Can anyone recommend a source for the /r/ vocalization
phenomenon? In Philadelphia or anywhere else?
Thank you
</pre>
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<pre wrap="">
--
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<pre wrap=""><!---->
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<br>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Richard Hudson, FBA,<br>
Emeritus Professor of Linguistics,<br>
University College London<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/dick/home.htm">www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/dick/home.htm</a></div>
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