[EDLING:649] Re: /r/ vocalization

[sicola at DOLPHIN.UPENN.EDU]

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 ellism2 at sas.upenn.edu:

> I am doing some research on African American /r/ vocalization patterns in
> Philadelphia.  Can anyone recommend a source for the /r/ vocalization
> phenomenon? In Philadelphia or anywhere else?
>
> Thank you
>


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