One goal of sociolinguistics is to explain the process of language change. Language change entails the introduction of a new linguistic feature by one language user and the adoption of this feature by others. Phonetic change involves both speech production (how speakers pronounce the sounds of language) and speech perception (how listeners process and interpret these sounds). A new linguistic feature must be produced by the first speaker to use the innovation and then both perceived and eventually produced by the other language users who subsequently adopt the innovation.
Until recently, however, most sociolinguists have only recorded language users' production and ignored their perception. This research investigates both the production and the perception of a group of language users who are exposed to a new linguistic feature. The results will yield a clearer picture of how linguistic innovations spread from person to person. This in turn will allow linguists to better understand the process of language change.
Data will be collected from three participant groups: lifelong residents of Jasper, Indiana; lifelong residents of Chicago; and Jasper natives who have moved to Chicago in adulthood. Participants will complete a reading task, a perception test, and an interview. These tasks will provide data on participants' production and perception of the Northern Cities Shift, a group of vowel shifts typical of Chicago. The data will show whether and to what extent the third group of participants has adopted the Northern Cities Shift. The results will clarify the roles of production and perception in the spread of language change and establish whether speech production or perception is more malleable in adulthood. This study will help linguists understand how perception and production interact in the adoption of a language change, which social factors affect whether someone adopts a linguistic innovation, and ultimately how and why language changes.
