In this paper, we present a focused perceptual dialectology study of variation in a single metropolitan area: New Orleans, Louisiana, long overlooked by linguists. We asked participants to complete a ...map-drawing activity using two maps, one of the city and its nearest suburbs, and one of the larger cultural zone. We also added the dimension of time by additionally asking participants to complete a map showing changes that have occurred since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which we identified as a catalyst for an increase in the rate of demographic change in the city. The results show that, unlike similar participants in other studies, African American and white New Orleanians draw the same city but label it differently, suggesting they occupy the same space but live in different places. When considering change over time, participants highlighted differences in the ethnic makeup of the city. We conclude that ethnicity in New Orleans is a key—if not the key—driver of perception both of linguistic variation and of change. With this study we confirm the importance of working with local actors to understand the way language practices map onto speakers’ understandings of space and place and the ways they may influence variation and change. The findings we present here provide us with key questions that will strengthen the results of production studies currently underway, demonstrating the significance of such work as a corollary to production studies.
Prevelar raising is the raising of trap and dress vowels before voiced velars. While bag and beg raising have been described in Canada, the Upper Mid-west, and the Pacific Northwest, an in-depth ...investigation of their distribution across North America is lacking, especially for beg. Using an online survey distributed to over 5,000 participants via Reddit (which skews toward younger, White males) and ordinary kriging for spatial interpolation, this study finds that prevelar raising is more widespread than previously reported: bag raising is found in much of the North and the Upper Midwest, and beg raising is far more variable and is common across much of the Midlands and the West, with concentrated pockets in the Northern Great Plains and various other regions. These data suggest that the two can occur independently, with areas like the upper Midwest exhibiting bag raising alone and the Midlands and the West reporting beg raising alone. These findings suggest that additional research on prevelar raising and other infrequent phonological variables is required to uncover their regional distribution and social meaning.
Native speakers of Welsh are well aware of geographical variation in features of the language, and are able to tell where people come from by listening to the way they speak. Welsh dialectologists ...have over the years looked at geographical variation in phonology, lexis and grammatical forms and have tried to establish where changes between different features are located. They have shown relatively little interest, however, in defining distinct regional dialects, and dividing the country into separate speech areas. This paper will look at those attempts which have been made in the frameworks of isoglottic dialectology, by John Rhŷs in 1897 and by Alan Thomas in 1973 and 1980, and ethnolinguistics by Rudolf Trebitsch in 1907-1909.
The paper presents successive dialect classifications of the Polish language together with the history of dialectology in Poland and the principal advances made in this field. The methodologies of ...different dialect classifications are discussed, too. The article begins with an overview of the history of the Polish language, which is followed by a presentation of the classifications of Polish dialects and subdialects elaborated by: Kazimierz Nitsch, Stanisław Urbańczyk, Karol Dejna, Marian Kucała and Halina Karaś. In the final part of the paper, the main characteristics of Polish dialects are presented. The aim of the paper is to offer non-Polish-speaking readers essential information related to this topic.
The present study uses electromagnetic articulography, by which the position of tongue and lips during speech is measured, for the study of dialect variation. By using generalized additive modeling ...to analyze the articulatory trajectories, we are able to reliably detect aggregate group differences, while simultaneously taking into account the individual variation of dozens of speakers. Our results show that two Dutch dialects show clear differences in their articulatory settings, with generally a more anterior tongue position in the dialect from Ubbergen in the southern half of the Netherlands than in the dialect of Ter Apel in the northern half of the Netherlands. A comparison with formant-based acoustic measurements further reveals that articulography is able to reveal interesting structural articulatory differences between dialects which are not visible when only focusing on the acoustic signal.
•Dutch dialects show distinct and characteristic tongue positions during speech.•Articulography may reveal dialect patterns not visible in the acoustic signal.•Generalized additive modeling is suitable for analyzing articulatory trajectories.
Abstract
The main goal of this paper is to provide a preliminary examination of the vulgar Latin grammatical gender system. The inscriptional evidence is studied closely to achieve this goal, this ...way the broad structure of the loss of the neuter can be observed and previously unknown dialectical differences can be discovered. Having done this groundwork further studies can investigate this material more thoroughly, and with a better understanding of the general features.
Characterised by the multiplicity and diversity of research and methodology, the European tradition of Semitic linguistics has always supported fieldwork and highly valued the data obtained in this ...way as it allows to create an interesting dynamic for linguistic studies itself. In the spirit of this tradition and to uphold it, the present book is a collection of articles based on data gathered primarily during field research expeditions. The volume is divided into two parts—Studies on various specific linguistic issues and Texts containing previously unpublished transcriptions of audio recordings in Arabic dialects, Maltese and Jibbali/Shehret.
Die europäische Tradition der semitischen Linguistik, die sich durch Vielfalt der Forschungsmethoden auszeichnet, hat dialektologische Feldforschung immer hoch geschätzt, da die gewonnenen Sprachaufnahmen im Kontext der älteren Sprachformen gesetzt werden und somit eine hochgradig interessante Dynamik in der Sprachwissenschaft ermöglichen. Im Geiste dieser Tradition und um sie aufrechtzuerhalten, ist das vorliegende Buch eine Sammlung von Artikeln, deren Daten vor allem während der Feldforschung gesammelt wurden. Der Band gliedert sich in zwei Teile - Studien zu verschiedenen spezifischen linguistischen Fragestellungen und Texte mit bisher unveröffentlichten Transkriptionen von Audioaufnahmen in arabischen Dialekten, Maltesisch und Jibbali/Shehret.
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