Sociophonetic analysis of vowel variation in African American English in the Southern United States

Abstract

Sociophonetic analysis is a quantitative method used to measure the dynamic acoustic properties of speech. Sociophonetic analysis pairs the demographic, geographic, and sociopolitical components of sociolinguistic inquiry with instrumental phonetic measurement techniques. This paper applies sociophonetic analysis to the study of regional vowel variation in African American English. Previous research has established robust variation in White American English. Only recently have explorations of dialect variation in African American English been completed. Analyses of vowel space area, vowel fronting, raising, and vowel dispersion reveal both regional alignment and racial/ethnic alignment of vowels produced by African American English speakers in the Southern United States. Regional variation in vowel production in African American English is observed. Findings are discussed with respect to the Southern Vowel Shift, the hypothesized African American vowel system and a proposed omniscient observer effect that directly impacts vowel production in African American English speakers in the United States. The impact of these findings is discussed for their importance in the analysis of theories of speech production and communication.