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A Stylistic Analysis of Newfoundland Irish English Vowels In PERFORMING “UP THE SHORE:” A STYLISTIC ANALYSIS OF NEWFOUNDLAND IRISH ENGLISH VOWELS IN THE FERRYLAND DINNER THEATRE By © Rachel Susan Grace Deal A thesis submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Arts Memorial University of Newfoundland May 2016 St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador ! ! ! ! Abstract This study is a variationist sociolinguistic analysis of two speech styles, performance and interview, of a dinner theatre troupe in Ferryland on the Southern Shore of Newfoundland. Five actors and ten of their characters are analyzed to test if their vowels change across styles. The study adopts a variationist framework with a Community of Practice model, drawing on Bell’s audience and referee design to argue that the performers’ stage conventions and identity construction are influenced by a third person referee: the Idealized Authentic Newfoundlander (IAN). Under this view the goal of the performer is to both communicate with and entertain the audience, which requires different tactics when speaking. These tactics manifest phonetically and are discussed in a quantitative, statistical analysis of the acoustic measurements of the vowel tokens [variables FACE, KIT, LOT/PALM and GOAT lexical sets with Newfoundland Irish English (NIE) variants] and a qualitative discussion. ! ii! ! ! Acknowledgements For every class, every meeting, every presentation, every mark-up, every reminder, every encouraging word, for your patience and for not giving up on me, I would like to thank my supervisors, Dr. Gerard Van Herk and Dr. Paul De Decker. I want to give a special thank you and a round of applause to the Southern Shore Folk Arts Council and all those involved in the 2008 Dinner Theatre for allowing me to be your ‘little townie.’ I extend a big thank you to Michelle Fitzsimmons, Matt-Hunt Gardner, Tyler Kendall, Jeff Roberts, Greg Hedlund, Patrick Knee, Amanda Field and Chad Healey for your ‘technical’ and statistical analysis support. To all the sociolinguists who shared in my journey, especially Jennifer Thorburn and Evan Hazenberg, thank you and good luck pursuing work in this wonderful field. Thank you Andy Gibson, Dr. Yvan Rose, Dr. Carrie Dyke, Dr. Marguerite MacKenzie, Dr. Phil Branigan, Dr. Sandra Clarke, Dr. Becky Childs, Dr. Hiscock, Ruby Bishop, Colleen Banfield, Pamela Murphy, Kelly Burkinshaw, Stephanie Pile, Sara Johansson, Suzanne Power, James Bulgin, Sarah Blackmore, Jane Tara Oliver, Heather Reckling, Courtney Dennis, Susan Rowsell, Shannon Ash, Kim Mihell, Dawn Mason and Katherine Angel for your advice and support. For every punctuation, word choice, and phrase change suggestion I especially thank ‘my’ editors Sarah Knee, Meghan Negrijn, Behak Rueentan, Jane Deal, Dr. Michael Deal, Peter Deal, and my reviewers Dr. Rebecca V. Roeder and Dr. Sara Mackenzie for their encouragement. I would like to thank every professor, student, Southern Shore performer and employee, audience member, ROD ‘family’ member, family member and friend who encouraged me, inspired me and especially took the time to help me create ‘that which shall not be named until completed’. I dedicate this thesis to you all, for without you the journey would not have been half as much fun or rewarding, thank you. ! iii! ! ! Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................. ii Acknowledgements ............................................................................ iii List of Tables .................................................................................... vii List of Figures ..................................................................................... x List of Charts ..................................................................................... xi List of Plots ....................................................................................... xv List of Appendices ............................................................................ xvii 1 Introduction: The Duality of Performance ........................................ 1 1.1 Performance .................................................................................... 2 1.1.1 Dialect Stage Conventions .......................................................................................... 5 1.1.2 Identity Construction .................................................................................................. 6 1.2 Theory/Framework .......................................................................... 9 1.2.1 Sociolinguistics Style ................................................................................................... 9 1.2.2 Variationist Sociolinguistics framework .................................................................... 14 1.2.3 Community of Practice ............................................................................................. 15 1.3 Thesis Roadmap ............................................................................ 16 2 Community ................................................................................. 18 2.1 Irish Avalon ................................................................................... 18 2.2 The Irish Loop ............................................................................... 21 2.3 Ferryland and the Southern Shore Folk Arts Council ........................... 25 2.4 The Dinner Theatre ........................................................................ 27 3 Newfoundland Irish English (NIE) ................................................. 29 3.1 Irish English Influence in Newfoundland ........................................... 29 3.2 Newfoundland Irish English (NIE) Phonetic Variables ......................... 31 4 Methodology ............................................................................... 34 4.1 Field Methods ................................................................................ 34 4.2 Participants ................................................................................... 36 4.3 The Recording Process .................................................................... 38 4.4 Variables ....................................................................................... 41 4.4.1 Lax Vowel Lexical Sets: KIT and LOT/PALM ........................................................... 41 4.4.2 Tense Vowel Lexical Sets: FACE and GOAT ............................................................. 41 4.5 Dependent Variables ...................................................................... 42 4.5.1 Duration .................................................................................................................... 42 4.5.2 Dispersion .................................................................................................................. 43 4.5.3 Shifts in Vowel Quality ............................................................................................. 46 4.5.4 Measurements of Slope ............................................................................................. 46 4.6 Independent Variable: Genre Comparisons ....................................... 49 4.7 Data Analysis ................................................................................. 50 5 Results: Ethnography and Organization ......................................... 53 5.1 Ethnography .................................................................................. 53 5.1.1 Audience Ratification ................................................................................................ 58 5.2 Actor Acoustic and Statistical Analyses: Organization .......................... 62 5.2.1 Duration .................................................................................................................... 62 ! iv! ! ! 5.2.2 Dispersion .................................................................................................................. 63 5.2.3 Shifts in Vowel Quality ............................................................................................. 64 5.2.4 Measurements of Slope ............................................................................................. 65 5.3 Token Breakdown .......................................................................... 65 6 Tinker Bell (TB) .......................................................................... 67 6.1 Stage Conventions .......................................................................... 68 6.1.1 Duration .................................................................................................................... 68 6.1.2 Dispersion .................................................................................................................. 70 6.2 Identity Construction ...................................................................... 77 6.2.1 Shifts in Vowel Quality ............................................................................................. 77 6.2.2 Measurements of Slope ............................................................................................. 80 7 Lycan Thorpe (LT) ....................................................................... 84 7.1 Stage Conventions .......................................................................... 86 7.1.1 Duration .................................................................................................................... 86 7.1.2 Dispersion
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