ACCOMMODATION TO THE LOCAL MAJORITY NORM BY HMONG AMERICANS IN THE TWIN CITIES, MINNESOTA

Abstract

This study investigates selected English sounds spoken by immigrants in a region of the United States undergoing vowel space restructuring. The vowels of Hmong Americans in the Minneapolis–St. Paul area are compared to those of local white middle-class speakers. Results of this comparison suggest that young white speakers produce a fronted bat vowel and a lowered and backed bet. Males reduce the mean bot-bought spectral distance, leaving the impression of an apparent merger. Younger Hmong Americans who arrived in the United States at a young age accommodate to local norms for bat fronting and raising but not to the apparent low-back merger, regardless of speaker age, sex, generation, or social mobility.