REGIONAL PHONOLOGICAL VARIANTS IN LOUISIANA SPEECH By August Weston Rubrecht A Dissertation Presented to the Graduate Council of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 1971 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Dr. F. G. Cassidy, Jr., director of the Dictionary of American Regional English, for permission to use the tape recordings on which this study is based, and I want to thank him and the Dictionary staff for doing what they could from such a distance to make the field work as pleasant as possible. I especially recall Mrs. Laura Ducker's cheering notes and letters, and Dr. James Hartman's consideration in assigning additional communities once those in Louisiana had been finished. The names of all those in Louisiana who helped make the field work easier and the field worker more comfortable would comprise a list too long to give here. It would include all my informants, not just those who made tapes, and all those who helped direct me to prospec- tive informants, together with many others whose hospitality I enjoyed. I am especially grateful to the William R. Van Ripers at LSU in Baton Rouge and to Miller Williams, Thomas Preston, and John Mosier and their families at Loyola in New Orleans for their hospitality and assistance. In the writing of the dissertation, I gratefully acknowledge the advice and suggestions of my chairman. Dr. John Algeo, who has helped me avoid or correct a great many errors, omissions, and infelicitous turns of phrase. Committee members Dr. Richard Dwyer and Dr. J. Wayne Conner also offered helpful suggestions which have ii been incorporated into the dissertation. The many flaws which remain are my own. Mrs. Carolyn A. Lyons of the Professional Typing Service deserves praise for her careful supervision of the typing and collating necessary to bring the dissertation to its final form. The drafting of tables and figures was done by Gary Sanders. No one has been of more help than my wife, Lois, whose clerical assistance and moral support have been indispensable in putting the dissertation together and keeping me from falling apart. I am sure that all those people just mentioned, however learned or however skilled or however dear they may be, realize that my fundamental debt of gratitude is owed to my informants. Only the necessity of preserving their privacy prevents me from thanking them each by name. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii LIST OF TABLES v LIST OF FIGURES vii KEY TO SYMBOLS x ABSTRACT xv Chapter I . THE BACKGROUNDS 1 II . COMMUNITIES AND INFORMANTS 48 Northern Louisiana 5 7 Florida Parishes 78 French Louisiana 86 New Orleans 98 Summary 104 III . INDIVIDUAL SPEECH PATTERNS 109 IV. PHONOLOGICAL VARIANTS 14 7 Prosody 14 7 Consonants 149 Free Vowels 165 Checked Vowels 193 Vowels Before the Retracted Consonant 217 Unstressed Vowels 229 Summary and Conclusion 235 BIBLIOGRAPHY 244 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 251 iv .. LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Informants by Type and Age 105 2 The Vowel Quadrangle Ill 3 LA 8 , Lake Providence 119 4. LA 12, Vienna 120 5. LA 17, Mansfield 121 6. LA 2, Columbia 122 7. LAI, Columbia 123 8. LA 10, Jonesville 124 9. LA 11, Jonesville 125 10. LA 14, Natchitoches 126 11. LA 15, LeCompte 127 12. LA 16, LeCompte 128 13 LA 29 , DeQuincy 129 14 LA 28 , DeQuincy 130 15. LA 3, St. Francisville 131 16. LA 5, St. Francisville 132 17 LA 7 , Clinton 133 18. LA 6, Clinton 134 19. LA 40, Hammond 135 20. LA 33, St. Martinville 136 21. LA 34, St. Martinville 137 . — LIST OF TABLES Continued Table Page 22. LA 25, Franklin 138 23. LA 20, Donaldsonville 139 24. LA 31, Cameron 140 25 LA 37 , Grand Isle 141 26. LA 36, Grand Isle 142 27. LA 23 , New Orleans 143 28. LA 22 , New Orleans 144 29 LA 42 , The Irish Channel 145 30. LA 46 , The Irish Channel 146 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Louisiana, showing topographical divisions and some major towns, cities, and rivers 5 27 2. Ratio of Catholics to Protestants ^^ 3. Previous dialect studies in Louisiana 58 4. Communities studied 5. The initial consonant of such words as ^-^^ the , those , and there 6. The initial consonant of such words as thing, through, and three and the final consonant of fourth -'-^^ 7. The initial consonant or consonant cluster l^^ of such words as where , when , and whip 8. The retracted consonant of such words as '-"' here , marsh , and forty 9. The vowel of such words as me, street, read, and people '°° 10. The vowel of such words as way, make, ^°^ grade , and maybe 11. The vowel of such words as stir, ohnroh, word, squirrel, and thirty 12. The syllabic nucleus of such words as bar, start, and market 13. The vowel of such words as right, wife , and nice 14. The vowel of such words as J, fry, time , and ride — LIST OF FIGURES Continued Figure Page 15. The vowel of such words as boy, choice , poison , and oysters 180 16. Mid central to low central beginning point for the vowel of such words as point, join, boil, and oil 181 17. The vowel of such words as plow, loud, down , south , and powder 185 18. The vowel of such words as law, dog, all, salt, and daughter 187 19. The vowel of such words as hoe, road, both, and over 189 20. The vowel of such words as through, boot , food, and school 192 21. The vowel of such words as bit, siak, mill, in, and pickle 194 22. The vowel of such words as leg, head, yes, tell, and better 196 23. The vowel of such words as bad, back, pan , lag , and ladder 199 24. The vowel of such words as half, grass , and chance 200 25. The vowel of such words as think, thing , and finger 203 26. The vowel of such words as men, ten , and center 204 27. The vowel of such words as lock, 208 pot , pond, and bother 28. The vowel of such words as up, 212 run , hush , jug , and himg viii — LIST OF FIGURES Continued Figure Page 29. The vowel of such words as put, bull, book, and sugar 216 30. The vowel nucleus of such words as deer here and , , near 219 31. The vowel nucleus of such words as chair , bear and , aare 221 32. The vowel nucleus of such words as horse and order 223 33. The vowel nucleus of such words as door and coarse 22A 34. The vowel in the final syllable of such words as never and finger 233 KEY TO SYMBOLS Phonetic Symbols Vowel Symbols Key Word (or Explanation) [ I ] fee [\] (centralized [j]) [I] fix [i] (centralized [I]) [e] French ble [£] wreck [S] bird [3] bird (in "r-less" speech) [0] (rounded [3]) [36] sack [d] (between [de.] and [CL]) [d] sock [«r] (between [tt] and [0]) [K] stuck [£] (between [A] and [d]) [)i] (between [A] and [V]) [0] hawk [O] French chaud [V] book [V] (centralized [\f]) [u] [f] far [V] yery [B] thxck [3] hother [S] sing [z] 200 [S] shucks [i] vision [X] German ach [h] hope choose jury [m] more [n] now [T]] sing [I] l±t [+-] cult [r] ring [w] wind yes Consonant diaavitioa Modification indicated .' [ ] after symbol lengthened [ ' ] after symbol aspirated [~] after symbol unreleased xii below [„] symbol dental articulation below symbol [J slight voicing added below [J symbol syllabic consonant Phonemic Symbols Vowel Symbols ^^y ^^^^ l\l three 111 thtck 1^1 hay III wreck IZI bird /ae/ back 1^1 pork (in "r-less" speech) lal sock Ml/ pike /3i/ hoy /au/ cow /o/ law IM truck 101 over Nl look l\XI true Consonant Symbols The same symbols are used for consonant phonemes as for consonant phones except that they are enclosed in virgules // rather than brackets the symbols [] and [4, ?, f, |3, X ] are omitted. other Symbols zero /R/ etymological /r/ ~ between items varies to Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate Council of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy REGIONAL PHONOLOGICAL VARIANTS IN LOUISIANA SPEECH By August Weston Rubrecht August, 1971 Chairman: Dr. John Algeo Major Department: English The study is based on tape-recorded conversations of twenty- eight informants in eighteen Louisiana communities made for the Dictionary of American Regional English. On the basis of settlement history and previous dialect studies, dealing with vocabulary, Louisiana is divided into four regions: northern Louisiana, the Florida Parishes, French Louisiana, and New Orleans. The settlement history of each community is briefly traced, and the family back- ground, occupation, and approximate social standing of each informant is given, together with some mention of outstanding speech charac- teristics. All informants were native English speakers; they ranged in age from eleven to eighty-eight years and in educational level from grammar school to graduate school. Numerically, the distribution of informants was weighted toward those sixty or older and those with relatively little formal schooling. Tables are provided illustrating the range of vowel articulations found on the recording of each informant. Discussion is largely limited to those segmental phonemes which show significant variation; the aim is to describe phonetic features characteristic of each region. Maps are included for all stressed vowel phonemes and for a few consonants. In the absence of phonological distinctions, northern Louisiana and the Florida Parishes are classed together as Anglo Louisiana. The consonants showing the greatest degree of variation are /B/ and /%/, the initial consonant or consonant cluster in words like where and whip, and postvocalic /T / , the treatment of which varies in most commu- nities and many idiolects.