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Phonological change and the development of an urban dialect in Illinois1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

Robert E. Callary
Robert E. Callary
Affiliation:
English Department, Northern Illinois University
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Abstract

The distribution of raised, nasalized variants of /æ/ in such words as hat, bag, and back in the speech of many Illinoisans cannot be explained by geographical or historical processes; rather the correlations are nearly isomorphic between raised variants of /æ/ and the size of the community in which the speaker was raised. Generally, the higher the variants, the more urban the speaker's background. Raised variants of /æ/ are discussed as they relate to contemporary sound change, to urban distributions, and to phonological context. (Urban dialects, sound change, American English, Illinois.)

Type
Articles: Ecology of Language
Information
Language in Society , Volume 4 , Issue 2 , August 1975 , pp. 155 - 169
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1975

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References

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