Dialect Spoken Research Articles

Multiparametric Analysis of Speaking Fundamental Frequency in Genetically Related Speakers Using Different Speech Materials: Some Forensic Implications.

To assess the speaker-discriminatory potential of a set of fundamental frequency estimates in intraidentical twin pair comparisons and cross-pair comparisons (i.e., among all speakers). A total of 20 Brazilian Portuguese speakers of the same dialect, namely 10 male identical twin pairs aged between 19 and 35, were recruited. The participants were recorded directly through professional microphones while taking part in a spontaneous dialogue over mobile phones. Acoustic measurements were performed in connected speech samples, and in lengthened vowels, at least 160ms long produced during spontaneous speech. f0 baseline, central tendency, and extreme values were found mostly discriminatory in intra-twin pair and cross-pair comparisons. These were also the estimates displaying the largest effect sizes. Overall, only three identical twins were found statistically different regarding their f0 patterns in connected speech, but not for lengthened vowel-based f0 metrics. Estimates of f0 variation and modulation were found the least discriminatory across speakers, which may signal the control of speaking style and dialect on dynamic patterns of f0. Concerning system performance, the base value of f0 (f0 baseline) was found the most reliable metric, displaying the lowest equal error rate (EER). The outcomes suggest that, although identical twins were very closely related regarding their f0 patterns, some pairs could still be differentiated acoustically, only in connected speech. Such findings reinforce the relevance of analyzing long-term f0 metrics for speaker comparison purposes, with particular consideration to f0 baseline. Furthermore, f0 differences across subjects were suggested as more expressive in connected speech than in lengthened vowels.

An Articulatory Analysis of English Consonants Produced by Pashto Native Speakers of Different Dialects

An Articulatory Analysis of English Consonants Produced by Pashto Native Speakers of Different Dialects

Ukrainian dialects of Northern Pidlasie: historical and cultural context

The article deals with the current sociolinguistic situation in the autochthonous Ukrainian dialects of Northern Podlasie (the territory of Poland) against the background of historical and cultural circumstances in which they have existed, especially in ХХ and early ХХI century. Particular attention is paid to the triad of “confessional – ethnic – linguistic affiliation”; the inculcation of the idea of “Belarusianness” to the population of this dialectal area, which has influenced the modern linguistic and ethnic consciousness of dialect speakers. The peculiarities of language education in Northern Podlasie are also analyzed. The factors that led to the preservation of Northern Podlasie dialects in multicultural conditions and, in fact, in the absence of direct contacts with Ukrainian dialects of the metropolis are identified; and on the other hand, the leveling of ethnic consciousness while preserving the specific language code. The current linguistic situation in the Northern Podlasie dialects is determined by the following main factors: age group of respondents, social status, occupation, family traditions, and, to a large extent, the size of the society, which determines the vitality of the dialect or, conversely, the loss of its prestige. The features of linguistic self-identification by modern speakers of Northern Podlasie dialects are investigated. The role of the idiolect in forming the portrait of the lateral dialect is studied. The tendency to the stability of idiolects in the context of the tangible dynamics of the dialect space is emphasized. The article also examines the written tradition of Northern Podlasie in the dialect, texts in the dialect of various functional styles, and different views on the status of Northern Podlasie dialects, including an attempt to establish a “Podlasie literary micro-language”. Dialectal features in the onomasticon and written microtexts of some other types are analyzed. Keywords: Ukrainian North Podlasie dialects, Ukrainian dialects in a foreign language environment, preservation of lateral dialects, language enclave, Ukrainian dialects of the borderlands.

Общие названия сорной травы в русских говорах Пермского края: мотивационный аспект (на материале диалектных словарей)

The article examines lexical units being general designations of weeds in Russian dialects of the Perm region. Data from dialect dictionaries of the region were used as research material. The aim was to study the motivational semantics of these lexemes. In the course of research, the motivational characteristics underlying the general names of weeds were identified, motivational models according to which these lexemes are formed were constructed, the general principles of designating weeds in Perm dialects were determined. It has been proven that phytonyms in Perm dialects can have multiple motivations. The study explores the ideas of Russian residents of the region about weeds reflected in dialect phytonyms. The main one is the idea of the uselessness of weeds on the farm (pustaya trava, sornyak, sornaya trava, sor, khlam, dudora, shelobon', batarma, chashcha, durnina, durnotrav'e, durnyak, durman; in this case the semantics often develops according to the model ‘waste, garbage, trash, rubbish’ → ‘weeds’; this is the most frequent semantic-motivational model in the considered group of vocabulary); designations reflecting objective characteristics of plants (features of the structure of the stem and leaves (dubinnik, batozh'e, dudka), properties of weeds (deryuga, deryaga, deryazhka, lipuchaya trava, suvolotka, suvoloka)) are less frequent in the study area and are of a concrete nature (trail along the ground, stick to other objects, etc.); in a single case, the name of a weed reflected ideas about the quality of a person leading to its appearance (bab'ya len', which can be roughly translated as a woman’s laziness; with this method of naming, not only the plants themselves but also this personal quality, through association with the plants, receive a negative cultural assessment). The obtained conclusions testify in favor of the anthropocentric, evaluative, concrete-sensual nature of the dialect speakers’ worldview.

Orthographic and Morphological Variation of Loanwords in the Arabic Vernaculars

The present article discusses the key orthographic and morphological modifications that Anglicisms and Gallicisms undergo beyond their adaptation in various Arabic vernaculars. At the level of orthography, the spelling of words with a two-consonant beginning, compound nouns and abbreviations is analyzed. The range of analyzed morphological categories includes gender and number for nouns, voice and mood for verbs. The need for a study is due to insufficient information about the above aspects of the adaptation of borrowings in Arabic dialects. For a detailed comparative analysis of various approaches to spelling and morphological adaptation, the author uses a questionnaire targeted for the dialect speakers. Based on the answers of 206 respondents from 18 Arab countries, it is concluded that the loanwords introduced via Arabic script preserve the source-language orthography. Borrowed abbreviations in participants’ answers mostly become acronyms. As for the gender of nouns, the participants tend to determine this morphological category relying on semantic analogy and phonetic similarity of endings. In matters of plural formation, suffixation remains the most popular way. However, in the case of inanimate nouns, up to a third of participants’ responses contain broken plurals. An analysis of borrowed verbs showed differences in the approaches of Arabic speakers from the Arab West and East in the adaptation of English and French lemmas and their subsequent conjugation. This circumstance allows us to conclude that the variability in adaptation is related to extralinguistic factors inherent in certain Arabic-speaking communities.

Отражение ценностного отношения человека к труду во фразеологии русских и мокшанских говоров на территории Республики Мордовия

in the article, in a comparative aspect, the phraseological units of Russian and Moksha dialects on the territory of the Republic of Mordovia, which convey the value attitude of a person to work, are analyzed. Objective: to give a semantic description of dialect phraseological units representing the attitude of a person to work, to identify axiological and cultural-historical ideas of dialect speakers in the region. Research materials: the study was conducted on the material of the “Phraseological Dictionary of Russian Dialects of Mordovia” by R.V. Semenkova, “Phraseological dictionary of Mordovian (Moksha and Erzya) languages” R.S. Shirmankina, as well as language materials of Russian subdialects and subdialects of the Moksha language, collected by the authors during dialectological expeditions to settlements located on the territory of the Republic of Mordovia. Results and novelty of the research: As a result of the study, the features of the semantics of phraseological units with the meaning “attitude of a person to work” in the Russian and Moksha dialects of Mordovia were revealed, a classification was proposed taking into account the presence of individual components in a special sense of phrase combinations, the nature of axiological and cultural-historical ideas conditioned by the regions about labor and laziness. The scientific novelty of the study is found in the fact that for the first time in a comparative aspect the phraseological data of two interacting languages in the territory of one region are analyzed, value attitude to work is revealed, special features reflecting the original national and cultural features of the Russian and Mordovian peoples are revealed

Collaboration with local fieldworkers to support remote collection of high quality audio speech data

In 2022 we planned speech data collection with speakers of Syrian and Jordanian dialects to inform an updated Syrian Arabic dialectology in response to sustained displacement of millions of Syrians. The pandemic imposed remote data collection, but an internet-based approach also facilitated recruitment with this highly distributed speech community. Their vulnerable situation brings barriers, however, since most prospective participants have limited internet data and rarely use email. We collected self-recorded short audio files in which participants read scripted materials and described pictures. Three platforms were tested: Gorilla, Phonic and Awesome Voice Recorder (AVR, smartphone app). Gorilla/Phonic offer stimulus presentation advantages, so were piloted thoroughly, but the audio quality obtained was not suitable for phonetic analysis, ruling out their use in the main study. AVR yields full spectrum wav files but requires participants to submit files by email, so we recruited local fieldworkers to support participants with recording and file submission. We asked fieldworkers and participants about their experience of working with us, through surveys and interviews. The results confirm fieldworker involvement was crucial to the success of the project which generated high quality audio data, suitable for phonetic analysis, from 134 speakers within three months (Almbark, Hellmuth, & Brown, forthcoming).

Variation of Spoken Slovene in the Case of Geographically Mobile Speakers

Based on the pioneering variationist research on Slovene language material, the article explores the authentic language use of speakers of the Cerkno dialect who commute daily or weekly to work or school in Slovenia’s capital, Ljubljana. The research corpus comprises excerpts from informants’ full-day audio self-recordings, selected to represent variation of location, interlocutors, and conversation topic. Through a quantitative analysis of five phonological variables, the study reveals distinct language strategies with speakers of other varieties, resulting in a classification of one code-switcher, three code-mixers, and one dialect speaker language strategies employed by the informants when communicating with speakers of other varieties, resulting in a classification of code-switchers, code-mixers and dialect speakers. Furthermore, the qualitative data derived from interviews shed light on various sociopsycholo­gical aspects of the focal topic, such as the informants’ perception of their own speech behaviour, their experiences with language use, and their language attitudes, providing deeper insights into their language variability and highlighting the intricacies of language choice and interpersonal communication.

What is Your Color? A Study of Najdi Bedouin Greetings

This study investigates the greetings of the Bedouin speakers of the Central Najdi Dialect in Afif, Saudi Arabia. It analyzes the greetings used by the subjects and examines the impact of the contextual factors of age, social status, social distance, period of absence, and formality of situation on their choice, and it also identifies the politeness strategies they opted for. The study uses a discourse completion test, interviews, and fieldnotes to collect its data. The study involves 50 subjects randomly chosen from the area. It shows that the subjects use the Islamic greetings, phatic questions, welcoming greetings, temporal greetings, and expressions of longing. It also demonstrates that the subjects use individual and group greetings that are differentiated by the second singular and plural pronoun inflections. Moreover, it shows that the subjects utilise some greetings the reference of which is made to the third singular and plural person pronouns. Also, it reveals that some of the greetings used take the present and past tense markers.

Considerations of dialect on the identification of speech sound disorder in Vietnamese-speaking children.

The dialect spoken by children influences diagnostic decision-making regarding the identification and severity of speech sound disorder (SSD). The primary objective was to review papers that examined the influence of dialect on the identification of SSD in Vietnamese-speaking children. Five studies of mono- and multilingual Vietnamese-speaking children living in Vietnam and Australia were reviewed to examine the influence of dialect on the assessment and analysis children's speech. The main Vietnamese dialects (Standard, Northern, Central, Southern) differ in the production of consonants, vowels and tones. Most speech assessments define correct production using the standard dialect of a language. Insights from recent studies of Vietnamese provide recommendations for also considering dialect in diagnostic decision-making. First, we recommend adding column(s) to the assessment score sheet that includes the dialectal variants spoken by adults in the child's family or community. Second, we calculate the accuracy of production twice, based on the standard form and dialectal form. Third, we report the percentage of consonants correct-standard (PCC-S) and percentage of consonants correct-dialect (PCC-D). Diagnostic decision-making is influenced by dialectal variation in children's speech, so speech and language therapists need to compare standard and dialectal productions when undertaking assessments, analysis and diagnostic decision-making. What is already known on the subject Most speech assessments use the standard form of a dialect as the correct production. The standard dialect is used for diagnosis of SSD and identification of intervention targets. What this paper adds to the existing knowledge This paper examines five research studies of Vietnamese to identify ways to consider dialect in speech and language therapy assessment and analysis. Vietnamese provides a complex environment for this examination since there are numerous Vietnamese dialects and they differ according to consonants, vowels and tones. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? Speech and language therapists are encouraged to add column(s) to their assessment score sheet that includes the dialectal variants spoken by adults and to report the PCC-S and PCC-D.

Kinship terms variation among speakers of Bahmaie dialect in Khuzestan Province of Iran

Language indicates the social and cultural identity of the nations, and literature is of great value in reflecting ideas, beliefs and visions in language. Considering the fact that the local dialects that lack written literature are more subject to convergence and death, extensive research is required for further documentation and investigating the factors leading to their infrequency of use. Bahmaie, a variant of Luri dialect spoken in the southwest of Iran, is an example in which the stylistic variation of kinship terms represents dialect endangerment and necessitates in-depth analysis of the factors affecting this variation. The present study aims at examining the variation of Bahmaie kinship terms and their Persian equivalents across different contexts, with respect to age, gender, educational level, and third person presence. To this aim, a 32item questionnaire was designed and distributed among 275 Bahmaie speakers divided into four age groups: 15-19, 20-29, 30-39, and 40 - above. The findings of the study indicated that the 15-19 age group speakers favored the Persian terms while those aged 40 - above were more likely to use Bahmaie terms. They also showed the impact of other contextual characteristics on variation of kinship terms (interlocutors’ status, gender, educational level, and third person presence). Results further demonstrated that Bahmaie speakers have a tendency towards being persified, and this trend is more pronounced among young speakers. This tendency is attributed to the dominance of Persian as the only high-status language, language contact, and migration causing a generation gap. The implication of the research is that documenting Bahmaie dialect, encouraging educated speakers to use it and fostering intra-cultural communication, are the strategies that can be helpful in keeping this dialect alive.

The irrepressible influence of vocal stereotypes on trust.

There is a reciprocal relationship between trust and vocal communication in human interactions. On one hand, a predisposition towards trust is necessary for communication to be meaningful and effective. On the other hand, we use vocal cues to signal our own trustworthiness and to infer it from the speech of others. Research on trustworthiness attributions to vocal characteristics is scarce and contradictory, however, being typically based on explicit judgements which may not predict actual trust-oriented behaviour. We use a game theory paradigm to examine the influence of speaker accent and prosody on trusting behaviour towards a simulated game partner, who responds either trustworthily or untrustworthily in an investment game. We found that speaking in a non-regional standard accent increases trust, as does relatively slow articulation rate. The effect of accent persists over time, despite the accumulation of clear evidence regarding the speaker's level of trustworthiness in a negotiated interaction. Accents perceived as positive for trust can maintain this benefit even in the face of behavioural evidence of untrustworthiness.

Neural Representations of Non-native Speech Reflect Proficiency and Interference from Native Language Knowledge.

Learning to process speech in a foreign language involves learning new representations for mapping the auditory signal to linguistic structure. Behavioral experiments suggest that even listeners that are highly proficient in a non-native language experience interference from representations of their native language. However, much of the evidence for such interference comes from tasks that may inadvertently increase the salience of native language competitors. Here we tested for neural evidence of proficiency and native language interference in a naturalistic story listening task. We studied electroencephalography responses of 39 native speakers of Dutch (14 male) to an English short story, spoken by a native speaker of either American English or Dutch. We modeled brain responses with multivariate temporal response functions, using acoustic and language models. We found evidence for activation of Dutch language statistics when listening to English, but only when it was spoken with a Dutch accent. This suggests that a naturalistic, monolingual setting decreases the interference from native language representations, whereas an accent in the listener's own native language may increase native language interference, by increasing the salience of the native language and activating native language phonetic and lexical representations. Brain responses suggest that such interference stems from words from the native language competing with the foreign language in a single word recognition system, rather than being activated in a parallel lexicon. We further found that secondary acoustic representations of speech (after 200 ms latency) decreased with increasing proficiency. This may reflect improved acoustic-phonetic models in more proficient listeners.Significance Statement Behavioral experiments suggest that native language knowledge interferes with foreign language listening, but such effects may be sensitive to task manipulations, as tasks that increase metalinguistic awareness may also increase native language interference. This highlights the need for studying non-native speech processing using naturalistic tasks. We measured neural responses unobtrusively while participants listened for comprehension and characterized the influence of proficiency at multiple levels of representation. We found that salience of the native language, as manipulated through speaker accent, affected activation of native language representations: significant evidence for activation of native language (Dutch) categories was only obtained when the speaker had a Dutch accent, whereas no significant interference was found to a speaker with a native (American) accent.

A Morpho-Syntactic Analysis of Personal Names in Oǹdó

Names are important in the Yorùbá culture. It is like a lens that clearly reflects the people’s social background and their cultural ideologies. Names are means by which a person is identified. It is considered among Yorùbá to be of life longer, even than the bearer of the names, hence the need for a name to be protected from being destroyed. All these are what scholars have said about names in the standard dialect of Yorùbá. This essay explains the form and structure of personal names in the Oǹdó dialect. By this we mean an attempt is made to explain the morpho-syntactic analysis of personal names in Oǹdó. Oǹdó dialect spoken in communities such as Ile̩-Oluji, Oǹdó, Ìdànrè, Ajùé, Òdìgbó, Òkè-Igbó, etc. The data collected were from the native speakers through interviews on the personal names. The analyses reflect that Oǹdó's personal names are morphologically derived through the de-sententialisation process. In terms of syntactic structure, most of the names are generated from simple basic sentences, compound sentences and negative sentence.

Phonological metathesis phenomenon in the early speech of Arabic-speaking children

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate the phonological metathesis phenomenon in the early speech of Arabic-speaking children. Based on analysis of a longitudinal data from 11 children's speech, the study mainly aims at investigating (1) the characteristics/nature of the phonological metathesis process in early child speech and (2) how it is different from adult phonological metathesis. The study explores the causes behind the metathesis phonological process in child speech.Design/methodology/approach This paper explored the phonological metathesis phenomenon based on a longitudinal study of 11 monolingual Arabic speakers of Yemeni-Ibbi Dialect (YIA) and cross-linguistic data from various languages.FindingsThe data analysis showed that metathesis phenomenon in child speech has several characteristics. It occurs at an early age, at 2 years and decreases with age. It was found that metathesis occurs mostly in disyllabic and trisyllabic words or more complex syllabic words, but metathesis rarely occurs in monosyllabic words in children's speech. The results indicated that unlike metathesis in adult speech, metathesis in children's speech occurs in undeliberate, slow, fast speech. The study explored that adjacency of sounds with similar phonological features, the ease of pronunciation, or the sonority effect are the motivations that trigger metathesis phenomenon to occur in child speech.Originality/valueIn the literature, the metathesis phonological process has got a little attention from researchers, and this is due to the rare cases of metathesis and the inconsistency of cases and the occurrence of metathesis. However, there is no consensus among the researchers about the causes of emergence and the occurrences behind the metathesis process. However, this study argues that the metathesis process has unique characteristics in child speech in comparison to adult speech and that there are some causes for metathesis to occur in human speech particularly in children's data such as adjacency of sounds with similar phonological features or sonority effect.

Negotiating Routes and/or Roots: Heritagisation of nanyin in China and Singapore, 1970s to 2010s

Originated in southern China, nanyin (南音) is regarded as ‘the sound of motherland’ (乡音) performed and loved by the Hokkien dialect speakers in Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and diasporic populations living in Southeast Asia. Having thrived in transnational spaces, nanyin is now celebrated as a shared heritage in China and Southeast Asian countries, such as Singapore. This paper explores the process of heritage‐making, that is, the ways in which the art form and cultural practice of nanyin have been re‐shaped and re‐appropriated by the diasporic communities and the native place to articulate different understandings of the Chinese identity in their distinct nation‐state frameworks. In this ambivalent entanglement, China has re‐appropriated the diasporic history of nanyin to gain international recognition and build soft power through United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. In Singapore, the Siong Leng Music Association has actively engaged in the heritage‐making of nanyin, leading to the creation of a unique Singapore brand that speaks to hybridity and cosmopolitanism, in the same way as the re‐construction of their Chinese identity. Examining the two processes of heritagisation of nanyin along the China‐Singapore ‘heritage corridors’, the paper argues that the two ends are connected in important ways but always seek to maintain distance to articulate their own cultural representations at international stages. Thus, nanyin through a comparative perspective enables a critical examination of issues of centre versus periphery, authenticity, and hybridity in the Sinophone world.

Study on the transfer effect of Wu dialect on the acquisition of English vowels by primary school students and countermeasures

Second-language learners tend to confuse English with the dialect they used when learning English. This leads to difficulties for second language learners in the Wu dialect area when learning English. So the purpose of this paper is to compare the differences in English vowel pronunciation between Shanghai dialect speakers and Received Pronunciation English speakers, and to summarize the errors and causes of the errors in English vowel pronunciation of second language learners experience an offset in tongue position. Secondly, Shanghai dialect speakers speak English for a longer period of time than the standard pronunciation. Thirdly, there is an error in the degree of opening of Shanghai dialect speakers compared to the Received Pronunciation pronouncers. Eventually, Shanghai dialect speakers confuse monophthongs with diphthongs. In response to the above issues, the following countermeasures are proposed from both students and teachers. It is hoped that it will provide an experimental model and pedagogical reference for the transfer effects and countermeasures of other local dialects in Wu Di on the acquisition of English vowels by primary school students.

Phonetic correlates to Khalkha Mongolian vowel contrasts: duration, formants and voice quality

The paper reports the results of an analysis of acoustic correlates to phonological contrasts in vowel length, quality and pharyngeal width with data from five native speakers of the Khalkh dialect. The study replicates Svantesson’s (1985) discovery of a chain-shift rotation of the round vowels in their presumed evolution from Classical Mongolian. Analysis with VoiceSauce (Shue et al. in: Proceedings of the ICPhS XVII, 1846–1849, 2009) finds that in addition to the first formant, the harmonics-to-noise ratio is a reliable indicator of the ATR versus RTR contrast that has been hypothesized to be the basis of the language’s vowel harmony.

LINGVO-SEMANTIC PALETTE OF THE CONCEPT OF FATE IN THE SLOBOZHANSKY AND BOYKIVSKY DIALECT DISCOURSE

The anthropocentrism of modern linguistics and the inexhaustibility of the meanings of human existence convince us of the relevance of conceptual analysis. Therefore, the aim of the study was to investigate the linguistic-semantic content of the general cultural concept of FATE in the mental structures of consciousness of the carriers of distant Slobozhansky and Boykivsky dialects, and the task was to structure these semantic units and the corresponding linguistic (speech) constructions. The objects of the study were narrative texts (narratives) of dialect speakers, where the motive of human fate is traced (directly or indirectly), and the subject of the study are the semantic components of the concept of FATE in the Ukrainian dialect continuum and their verbalization at the lexical, phraseological, syntagmatic, and syntactic levels. The methodology of the study consisted of a continuous selection of linguistic-semantic components of the concept of FATE from the dialectological material recorded in the summer of 2021 and a semantic analysis of the identified speech structures.In the analyzed narratives, the concept of FATE is represented by denominations that belong to the lexico-semantic groups (LSG) «Expressions about the inevitability of fate», «Expressions about the hardship of female fate», «A statement about the need to change one’s destiny», «A statement about the typical fate of a representative of a certain community in a certain historical period». In the LSG «Statements about the inevitability of fate» we single out speech constructions that fit into semantic models (SM) «the bureaucratic apparatus of a totalitarian state moves a person from his native place against his wishes», «the dependence of life’s fate on a typical life model»; in LSG «Statements about the hardships of a woman’s fate» − SM: «a stepmother (mother-in-law, fatherin-law) interferes in the formation of a young woman’s life destiny», «the fatalism of an unsuccessful marriage for a woman»; in LSG «Statements regarding the need to change one’s fate» − SM: «satisfaction with one’s fate (aspiration for a sustainable life)», «active position in changing one’s fate», «active position in changing the fate of one’s children»; in LSG «Statement about the typical fate of a representative of a certain community in a certain historical period» − SM: «lack of work and decent earnings as a negative factor in life’s fate», «habituation of representatives of another ethnic group to the search for a better fate in the worlds».We see a comparative analysis of the linguistic and semantic components of the concept of FATE in Ukrainian spoken and artistic discourses as a research perspective.

You Ain’t from Here, Are You? Subregional Variation and Identification among Young Appalachians

This article examines a three-way subregional distinction between Northern, Middle, and Southern Appalachia based on younger respondents’ self-reported use of traditional lexical, phonological, and syntactic features of Appalachian English (AppE). As a result of recent social changes that have led to less isolation in Appalachia, it considers subregional differences in AppE use between young urban and rural speakers as well as subregional differences between Appalachian identity and use of AppE. Understanding how young speakers across Appalachia are adapting and integrating traditional or mainstream features provides a lens for broader examination of the ways in which speakers of vernacular dialects negotiate the choice between competing dialect norms.