26.3, Diss: English; Phonetics, Sociolinguistics: Holland: 'Shifting or Shifted? The State of California Vowels'

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LINGUIST List: Vol-26-3. Fri Jan 02 2015. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 26.3, Diss: English; Phonetics, Sociolinguistics: Holland: 'Shifting or Shifted? The State of California Vowels'

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Date: Fri, 02 Jan 2015 14:24:14
From: Cory Holland [Cory.Holland at colostate.edu]
Subject: Shifting or Shifted? The State of California Vowels

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Institution: University of California, Davis 
Program: Department of Linguistics 
Dissertation Status: Completed 
Degree Date: 2014 

Author: Cory Holland

Dissertation Title: Shifting or Shifted? The State of California Vowels 

Linguistic Field(s): Phonetics
                     Sociolinguistics

Subject Language(s): English (eng)


Dissertation Director(s):
Robert Bayley
Travis G. Bradley
Valerie M. Fridland

Dissertation Abstract:

Vowel variation and change in American English is well studied and well
established in the Eastern portion of the United States, but less so in the
West. California is by far the most populous state in the West and the subject
of a majority of the studies of vowel variation and change in the West.
However, very few of these studies focus on regions other than the urban
coastal cities. These studies of urban coastal California have found that the
California vowel space is, or at least has been, changing, termed the
“California Vowel Shift” (CVS). Additionally, most studies of vowel variation
and change are conducted amongst populations with homogenous ethnicities or
first languages. This study of vowel variation and change extends
investigation of the CVS away from urban coastal California and to speakers
outside of the prototypical – white English-monolingual Californian –
participant in the CVS. This study is located in a University community in
California's Central Valley and participants were recruited to be
representative of the demographics of the community. In total 65 speakers
between the ages of 18 and 56 are included, of whom 54% self-report a
non-white ethnicity and 32% report speaking a language other than English at
home. A lack of evidence for change in apparent time in the majority of vowel
features implicated in the CVS suggests that the California vowel space may be
reaching a point of stability. Also, the speakers in this community are found
to participate in the CVS in substantially similar ways, calling into question
assumptions about the necessity of homogeneity of ethnicity and language in
the formation of a dialect community.







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