The proposed research examines regional dialect variation and sound change over time.
The specific aims are to propose one explanation of why vowels change over generations and to advance our knowledge of variation in speech. A hypothesis is tested that vowel changes result, in part, from prosodic organization of speech. Accordingly, prosodic prominence will affect in predictable ways different vowel shifts currently underway in three regional varieties of American English found in Central Ohio, Southern Wisconsin, and Western North Carolina. The subject pool will consist of three generations of speakers who have lived in the same general area most of their lives. These will be children aged 8-11 years, their parents/caretakers aged 25-40 years, and their grandparents (or other members of this older generation) aged 55-75 years. Both production and perception experiments will be conducted that examine how prosodic prominence influences the acoustics of selected vowels and the extent to which listeners in a particular dialect (and from a particular generation) are sensitive to the acoustic changes induced by those systematic prosodic variations. The selected acoustic variables will measure the relationship between the formant pattern, magnitude and rate of formant frequency change and the degree of prosodic prominence (high, intermediate, and low). According to our hypothesis, the role of high prosodic prominence will be that of leading the vowel shift in a predictable direction. Detailed knowledge about the nature of normal and systematic variation in a given dialect is necessary for the development of clinical instruments for the fair and accurate assessment of both speech language and hearing disorders in various regions (and cultures) of the United States. The studies proposed here will contribute directly to development of these instruments. As regional varieties of English continue to diverge, this dimension must be incorporated into work on speech intelligibility, recognition, and synthesis. ? ?

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
3R01DC006871-02S1
Application #
7243785
Study Section
Language and Communication Study Section (LCOM)
Program Officer
Shekim, Lana O
Project Start
2005-07-01
Project End
2010-06-30
Budget Start
2006-07-01
Budget End
2007-06-30
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
2006
Total Cost
$31,128
Indirect Cost
Name
Ohio State University
Department
Other Health Professions
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
832127323
City
Columbus
State
OH
Country
United States
Zip Code
43210
Jacewicz, Ewa; Fox, Robert Allen (2018) Regional Variation in Fundamental Frequency of American English Vowels. Phonetica 75:273-309
Fox, Robert Allen; Jacewicz, Ewa (2017) Reconceptualizing the vowel space in analyzing regional dialect variation and sound change in American English. J Acoust Soc Am 142:444
Long, Gayle Beam; Fox, Robert Allen; Jacewicz, Ewa (2016) Dyslexia Limits the Ability to Categorize Talker Dialect. J Speech Lang Hear Res 59:900-914
Holt, Yolanda Feimster; Jacewicz, Ewa; Fox, Robert Allen (2015) Variation in Vowel Duration Among Southern African American English Speakers. Am J Speech Lang Pathol 24:460-9
Jacewicz, Ewa; Fox, Robert Allen (2015) Intrinsic fundamental frequency of vowels is moderated by regional dialect. J Acoust Soc Am 138:EL405-10
Jacewicz, Ewa; Fox, Robert Allen (2014) The effects of indexical and phonetic variation on vowel perception in typically developing 9- to 12-year-old children. J Speech Lang Hear Res 57:389-405
Jacewicz, Ewa; Fox, Robert Allen (2012) The effects of cross-generational and cross-dialectal variation on vowel identification and classification. J Acoust Soc Am 131:1413-33
Jacewicz, Ewa; Fox, Robert Allen; Salmons, Joseph (2011) Regional dialect variation in the vowel systems of typically developing children. J Speech Lang Hear Res 54:448-70
Jacewicz, Ewa; Fox, Robert Allen; Salmons, Joseph (2011) Cross-generational vowel change in American English. Lang Var Change 23:45-86
Jacewicz, Ewa; Fox, Robert A; Salmons, Joseph (2011) Vowel change across three age groups of speakers in three regional varieties of American English. J Phon 39:683-693

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