Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T18:13:34.289Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Apparent-time evolution of /l/ in one African American community

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2010

Janneke van Hofwegen
Janneke van Hofwegen
Affiliation:
North Carolina State University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In the wake of numerous analyses of vowels in African American English (AAE), this study examines acoustically the phonetic production of a consonant—the word-initial lateral /l/—across several generations of speakers from a long-standing African American community in central North Carolina. The results of the study show that /l/ is darker in younger AAE speakers than in older ones, independent of phonetic context. Comparisons with ex-slave recordings suggest that a light variant of /l/ may be a substrate feature of AAE that has changed in recent decades. Additional comparisons with regional European Americans suggest that the darkening may be due to convergence with majority American English dialects.

Type
Research Article
Information
Language Variation and Change , Volume 22 , Issue 3 , October 2010 , pp. 373 - 396
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Agresti, Alan. (2007). An introduction to categorical data analysis. 2nd ed.Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baayen, Harald. (2008). Analyzing linguistic data: A practical introduction to statistics using R. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bailey, Guy. (2001). The relationship between African American and white vernaculars in the American South. In Lanehart, S. L. (ed.), Sociocultural and historical contexts of African American English. Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 53–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bailey, Guy, & Thomas, Erik R. (1998). Some aspects of African American Vernacular English phonology. In Mufwene, S., Rickford, J., Bailey, G., & Baugh, J. (eds.), African American English: Structure, history, and use. London: Routledge. 85–109.Google Scholar
Bailey, Guy, Maynor, Natalie, & Cukor-Avila, Patricia. (1991). Introduction. In Bailey, G., Maynor, N., & Cukor-Avila, P. (eds.), The emergence of Black English: Texts and commentary. Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 1–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boersma, Paul, & Weenink, David. (2006). Praat: Doing phonetics by computer [Computer program]. Version 5.0.22. Available at: http://www.praat.org.Google Scholar
Carter, Paul. (2003). Extrinsic phonetic interpretation: spectral variation in English liquids. In Local, J., Ogden, R., & Temple, R. (eds.), Phonetic interpretation: Papers in laboratory phonology VI. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 237–252.Google Scholar
Childs, Becky, & Wolfram, Walt. (2008). Bahamian English: Phonology. In Schneider, E. W. (ed.), Varieties of English 2: The Americas and the Caribbean. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 239–255.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cukor-Avila, Patricia. (1995). The evolution of AAVE in a rural Texas community: An ethnolinguistic study. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan.Google Scholar
Dalston, Roger M. (1975). Acoustic characteristics of English /w,r,l/ spoken correctly by young children and adults. Journal of the Acoustic Society of America 57:462–469.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
D'Andrea, Kristy D. (2005). African American English in Princeville, NC: Looking at dialect change through the feature of r-lessness. Paper presented at the American Dialect Society Annual Meeting, Oakland, CA, January 2005.Google Scholar
Docherty, Gerard J., & Foulkes, Paul. (1999). Derby and Newcastle: Instrumental phonetics and variationist studies. In Docherty, G. J. & Foulkes, P. (eds.), Urban voices: Accent studies in the British Isles. London: Arnold. 47–71.Google Scholar
Dodsworth, Robin, Plichta, Bartek, & Durian, David. (2006). An acoustic study of Columbus /l/ vocalization. Paper presented at New Ways of Analyzing Variation, Columbus, OH, November 2006.Google Scholar
Durian, David. (2008). The vocalization of /l/ in urban blue collar Columbus, OH AAVE: A quantitative sociophonetic analysis. The Ohio State Working Papers in Linguistics 58:31–53.Google Scholar
Elugbe, Ben. (2008). Nigerian Pidgin English: Phonology. In Mesthrie, R. (ed.), Varieties of English 4: Africa, South and Southeast Asia. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 55–66.Google Scholar
Espy-Wilson, Carol Y. (1992). Acoustic measure for linguistic features distinguishing the semivowels /wjrl/ in American English. Journal of the Acoustic Society of America 92:736–757.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fasold, Ralph W., & Wolfram, Walt. (1970). Some linguistic features of Negro Dialect. In Fasold, R. W. & Shuy, R. W. (eds.), Teaching standard English in the inner city. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics. 41–86.Google Scholar
Fix, Sonya. (2004). /l/ vocalization and racial integration of social networks: Sociolinguistic variation among whites in a Columbus Ohio community. Poster presented at New Ways of Analyzing Variation, Ann Arbor, MI, October 2004.Google Scholar
Fridland, Valerie. (2003). Network strength and the realization of the Southern Vowel Shift among African-Americans in Memphis, Tennessee. American Speech 78:3–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gelman, Andrew. (2006). Multilevel (hierarchical) modeling: What it can and can't do. Technometrics 48:432–435.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gick, Bryan. (2002). The American intrusive L. American Speech 77:167–183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giles, Stephen B., & Moll, Kenneth. (1975). Cinefluorographic study of selected allophones of English /l/. Phonetica 31:206–227.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, Lisa. (2002). African American English: A linguistic introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hawkins, Sarah, & Nguyen, Noël. (2004). Influence of syllable-coda voicing on the acoustic properties of syllable-onset /l/ in English. Journal of Phonetics 32:199–231.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hayes, Bruce P. (2000). Gradient well-formedness in optimality theory. In Dekkers, J., van der Leeuw, F., & van de Weijer, J. (eds.), Optimality theory: Phonology, syntax, and acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 88–120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holmes, Janet. (1995). Glottal stops in New Zealand English: An analysis of variants of world-final /t/. Linguistics 33:433–463.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huffman, Marie K. (1997). Phonetic variation in intervocalic onset /l/'s in English. Journal of Phonetics 25:115–141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, Daniel. (2009). Getting off the Goldvarb standard: Introducing Rbrul for mixed-effects variable rule analysis. Language and Linguistics Compass 3:359–383.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Labov, William, Cohen, Paul, Robins, Clarence, & Lewis, John. (1968). The non-standard English of black and Puerto Rican Speakers in New York City, final report, No. 3288. Philadelphia: U.S. Regional Survey.Google Scholar
Ladefoged, Peter. (1968). A phonetic study of West African languages. 2nd edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ladefoged, Peter, & Maddieson, Ian. (1996). Sounds of the world's languages. Malden, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Menang, Thaddeus. (2008). Cameroon Pidgin English (Kamtok): Phonology. In Mesthrie, R. (ed.), Varieties of English 4: Africa, South and Southeast Asia. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 133–149.Google Scholar
Milroy, Lesley. (1980). Language and social networks. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Mobley, Joe A. (1994). In the shadow of white society: Princeville, a black town in North Carolina, 1865–1915. In Nieman, D. G. (ed.), Church and community among black Southerners 1865–1900. New York: Garland. 28–72.Google Scholar
Narayanan, Shrikanth S., Alwan, Abeer A., & Haker, Katherine. (1997). Toward articulatory-acoustic models for liquid approximants based on MRI and EPG data. Part I. The laterals. Journal of the Acoustic Society of America 101:1064–1077.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Oxley, Judith, Buckingham, Hugh, Roussel, Nancy, & Daniloff, Raymond. (2006). Metrical/syllabic factors in English allophony: Dark /l/. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics 20:109–117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Recasens, Daniel. (1996). An articulatory-perceptual account of vocalization and elision of dark /l/ in the Romance languages. Language and Speech 39:63–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Recasens, Daniel (2004). Darkness in [l] as a scalar phonetic property: Implications for phonology and articulatory control. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics 18:593–603.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Recasens, Daniel, & Epinosa, Aina. (2005). Articulatory, positional, and coarticulatory characteristics for clear /l/ and dark /l/: Evidence from two Catalan dialects. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 35:1–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Recasens, Daniel, Fontdevila, Jordi, & Dolors Pallarès, Maria. (1995). Velarization degree and coarticulatory resistance for /l/ in Catalan and German. Journal of Phonetics 23:37–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rickford, John R. (1999). African American Vernacular English: Features, evolution, educational implications. Malden, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Rosen, Kristin M. (2005). Analysis of speech segment duration with the lognormal distribution: A basis for unification and comparison. Journal of Phonetics 33:411–426.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rowe, Ryan D. (2005). The development of African American English in the Oldest Black Town in America: Plural -s Absence in Princeville, North Carolina. M.A. thesis, North Carolina State University.Google Scholar
Sirkin, R. Mark. (2006). Statistics for the social sciences. 3rd ed.Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sproat, Richard, & Fujimura, Osamu. (1993). Allophonic variation in English /l/ and its implications for phonetic implementation. Journal of Phonetics 21:291–311.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stevens, Kenneth N. (1998). Acoustic phonetics. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Syrdal, Ann K., & Gopal, H. S. (1986). A perceptual model of vowel recognition based on the auditory representation of American English vowels. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 79:1086–1100.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Thomas, Erik R. (2001). An acoustic analysis of vowel variation in New World English. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Thomas, Erik R (2002). Sociophonetic applications of speech perception experiments. American Speech 77:115–147.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, Erik R (2007). Phonological and phonetic characteristics of AAVE. Language & Linguistics Compass 1:450–475.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, Erik R., & Carter, Phillip M. (2006). Prosodic rhythm and African American English. English World-Wide 27:331–355.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Traunmüller, Hartmut. (1990). Analytical expressions for the tonotopic sensory scale. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 88:97–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Gelderen, Elly. (2006). A history of the English language. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Rooy, Bertus. (2008). Black South African English: Phonology. In Mesthrie, R. (ed.), Varieties of English 4: Africa, South and Southeast Asia. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 177–187.Google Scholar
Wheldon, Tracey L. (2008). Gullah: Phonology. In Schneider, E. W. (ed.), Varieties of English 2: The Americas and the Caribbean. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 192–207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolfram, Walt. (1969). A sociolinguistic description of Detroit Negro speech. Washington, D.C.: Center for Applied Linguistics.Google Scholar
Wolfram, Walt (2007). Sociolinguistic folklore in the study of African American English. Language and Linguistic Compass 1:292–313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolfram, Walt, & Thomas, Erik R. (2002). The development of African American English. Malden, MA: Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wrench, A. A., & Scobbie, James M. (2003). Categorising vocalisation of English /l/ using EPG, EMA, and ultrasound. In Palethorpe, S. & Tabain, M. (eds.), Proceedings of the 6th International Seminar on Speech Production. Sydney: Macquarie University. 314–319.Google Scholar
Yaeger-Dror, Malcah, Kendall, Tyler, Foulkes, Paul, Watt, Dominic, Harrison, Phil, Kavanagh, Colleen, & Oddie, Jillian. (2009). Trained listener judgments of rhoticity in English: What R are we hearing? Paper presented at Linguistic Society of America Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, January 2009.Google Scholar