The New York City–New Orleans connection: Evidence from constraint ranking comparison

Abstract

AbstractNew York City English (NYCE) and New Orleans English (NOE) demonstrate remarkable similarity for cities located 1300 miles apart. Though the question of whether these dialects feature a shared history has fueled papers on the subject (Berger, 1980; Labov, 2007), there remain a number of issues with the historical record that prevent researchers from arriving at a consensus (Eble, 2016). This article presents linguistic evidence from constraint ranking comparisons of variable nonrhoticity andbought-raising in comparable contemporary samples of NYCE and NOE speakers. Findings demonstrate strikingly similar systems for (r), but dissimilar systems forbought-raising. We examine the results of our analyses in the context of evidence from previous comparisons of NYCE and NOE, concluding that the resemblance between the two dialects is likely due to diffusion from New York City to New Orleans, occurring in the 19th century beforebought-raising emerged in either variety.