A Reader in Sociophonetics

Dennis R. Preston, Nancy Niedzielski, Dennis R. Preston, Nancy Niedzielski

• Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9781934078044
• eBook ISBN: 9781934078068
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Langues et linguistique
• Subtopic: Linguistique

Sociophonetics is one of the sub-branches of the discipline that has attracted a great deal of attention over the last decade. Recent advances in speech science and their technological simulations allow increasingly sophisticated studies of the progress of language contact and change. These studies, particularly those at the level of pronunciation, show that language variety is robust and socially embedded in interesting ways. Instrumental studies of language variety contact and change have focused on the role of social categories and attitudes in variety perception as well as production. Some of the studies presented in this volume look at the specific role of social factors in the formation, progress, and deterrence of intralingual contact and change; while others look at the ways in which social identities and beliefs influence a listener's ability to identify and comprehend varieties. These studies use detailed acoustic analyses of production speech data and of responses to samples of data based on such analyses. Although the book assumes some knowledge of basic acoustics and variationist studies, the general introduction provides a review of practices in the field, including those of collection, analysis, and interpretation.

Table of contents

• Frontmatter
• Contents
• Introduction: Sociophonetics Studies of Language Variety Production and Perception
• Chapter 1. The Peripatetic History of Middle English *ε†
• Chapter 2. Social and Phonetic Conditioners on the Frequency and Degree of “intrusive /r/” in New Zealand English
• Chapter 3. Effects of Consonantal Context on the Pronunciation of /æ/ in the English of Speakers of Mexican Heritage from South Central Michigan
• Chapter 4. Rhythm Types and the Speech of Working-Class Youth in a Banlieue of Paris: The Role of Vowel Elision and Devoicing
• Chapter 5. The Sociophonetics of Prosodic Contours on NEG in Three Language Communities: Teasing apart Sociolinguistic and Phonetic Influences on Speech
• Chapter 6. An Emerging Gender Difference in Japanese Vowel Devoicing
• Chapter 7. Regional Stereotypes and the Perception of Japanese Vowel Devoicing
• Chapter 8. Phonetic Detail, Linguistic Experience, and the Classification of Regional Language Varieties in the United States
• Chapter 9. Perceptions of /a/ fronting Across Two Michigan Dialects
• Chapter 10. Belle’s Body Just Caught the Fit Gnat: The Perception of Northern Cities Shifted Vowels by Local Speakers
• Chapter 11. Linguistic Security, Ideology, and Vowel Perception
• Chapter 12. Identification of African American Speech
• Chapter 13. Phonetic Detail in the Perception of Ethnic Varieties of US English
• Chapter 14. Sound Judgments: Perception of Indexical Features in Children’s Speech
• Chapter 15. Avant-garde Dutch: A Perceptual, Acoustic, and Evaluational Study
• Chapter 16. Aspects of the Acoustic Analysis of Imitation
• Chapter 17. The Cycle of Production, Ideology, and Perception in the Speech of Memphis, Tennessee
• Backmatter