Phonological change and the development of an urban dialect in Illinois
- 1 August 1975
- journal article
- Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) in Language in Society
- Vol. 4 (2) , 155-169
- https://doi.org/10.1017/s0047404500004620
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.)Keywords
This publication has 2 references indexed in Scilit:
- One Phonemic Entity Becomes Two: The Case of 'Short A'American Speech, 1940
- The Pronunciation of "Short A" in American Standard EnglishAmerican Speech, 1930