Oregonian Perceptions of American Regional Speech Laura Hartley George Fox University, [email protected]
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Digital Commons @ George Fox University Faculty Publications - Department of World Department of World Languages, Sociology & Languages, Sociology & Cultural Studies Cultural Studies 1996 Oregonian Perceptions of American Regional Speech Laura Hartley George Fox University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/lang_fac Part of the Other Linguistics Commons Recommended Citation Hartley, Laura, "Oregonian Perceptions of American Regional Speech" (1996). Faculty Publications - Department of World Languages, Sociology & Cultural Studies. Paper 13. http://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/lang_fac/13 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of World Languages, Sociology & Cultural Studies at Digital Commons @ George Fox University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications - Department of World Languages, Sociology & Cultural Studies by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ George Fox University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. OREGONIAN PERCEPTIONS OF AMERICAN REGIONAL SPEECH By Laura C. Hartley A THESIS Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Department of Linguistics 1996 ABSTRACT OREGIONAN PERCEPTIONS OF AMERICAN REGIONAL SPEECH By Laura C. Hartley Although much is known about the varieties of American speech from a linguistic standpoint, less work has been done which examines folklinguistic attitudes and beliefs about those varieties. "Perceptual dialectology" studies have been done in several areas of the United States; however, no research to date has examined the perceptions of west-coast residents. In this study, the attitudes of Oregon residents towards American speech are examined through the use of hand-drawn maps and ratings of "degree of difference," "correctness," and "pleasantness." The results of the ratings data are analyzed primarily using Chi-Square Tests of Independence, Multi-Dimensional Scaling, and K-Means Cluster Analysis. Results of the study indicate that overall, residents of Oregon exhibit a good deal of linguistic security. They tend to agree, in general, with the perceptual dialectology of respondents from other geographical areas, although there are a few noticeable differences in their ratings. ACKNOWLEDMENTS I am very fortunate to be able to study under and work with Dr. Dennis Preston. His enthusiasm, interest and support in this project have been invaluable, particularly as we have explored together new ways of analyzing perceptual dialectology data. I am very aware of the fact that not all graduate students are able to work with an advisor who is both a mentor and a friend. Much thanks goes to Dr. A. Sue Harris and Lynn Landweer and the students of the Sociolinguistic Survey class at the University of Oregon Summer 1995 session for their help in this project: Troy Bailey, Rich Berger, Donna Berger, Naomi Dobbins, Deb Duncan, Marijane Elliott, Tina Fiddelka, Aric Haley, Janna Hopkins, and Michele Miles. Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following authors and publishers for the rights to reprint figures from copyrighted material: University of Michigan Press for Figure 8.1 (reproduced as Figure 1, p. 3) from American Regional Dialects, by Craig M. Carver, 1989; Walt Wolfram for Figure 4-15 (reproduced as Figure 2, p. 4) from Dialects and American English, 1991. Finally, I would like to thank my husband, Ben Hartley, for his support and encouragement throughout the duration of this project and my graduate school career. His confidence in me is a continual source of strength as I work to fulfill the vocation to which I have been called. i ii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................... vi LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................... vii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................ 1 1.1 Language Attitudes Research .......................................................... 1 1.2 The Linguistic Situation in the United States ................................. 2 1.3 Language Attitudes and Folk Linguistics ....................................... 5 1.4 Perceptual Dialectology Studies in the U.S. ................................... 6 CHAPTER 2 METHODOLOGY ..................................................................................... 11 2.1 Data Collection .............................................................................. 11 2.2 Research Tools .............................................................................. 11 2.3 Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis .......................................... 13 CHAPTER 3 RESULTS ................................................................................................... 16 3.1 Hand-Drawn Maps ........................................................................ 16 3.2 Degree of Difference ..................................................................... 27 3.3 Correctness .................................................................................... 35 3.4 Pleasantness ................................................................................... 43 CHAPTER 4 DISCUSSION ............................................................................................. 53 4.1 Perceptions of Western States ....................................................... 53 4.2 Perceptions of Midwestern States ................................................. 59 4.3 Perceptions of Northeastern States ................................................ 63 4.4 Perceptions of New York City, New York and New Jersey ......... 65 4.5 Perceptions of Southern States ...................................................... 67 4.6 Effects of Gender, Age, and Visit Status ...................................... 70 4.7 Comments on Research Methodology .......................................... 75 iii 4.8 Conclusion ..................................................................................... 77 APPENDIX A RESEARCH TOOLS .................................................................................. 80 APPENDIX B STATE NAME ABBREVIATIONS USED .............................................. 86 APPENDIX C SAMPLE HAND-DRAWN MAPS ............................................................ 87 APPENDIX D LABELS USED ON HAND-DRAWN MAPS .......................................... 92 APPENDIX E RATINGS (RAW NUMBERS) .................................................................. 98 APPENDIX F SELECT TRANSCRIPTS OF TAPED INTERVIEWS .......................... 103 LIST OF REFERENCES .......................................................................... 114 iv LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Frequency of Identification of Dialect Regions .......................... 16 Table 2. Degree of Difference Ratings for Illinois by Age Group ........... 27 Table 3. Degree of Difference Ratings for Indiana by Age Group ........... 28 Table 4. Degree of Difference Ratings for Arizona by Visit .................... 29 Table 5. Degree of Difference Ratings for Kentucky by Visit.................. 29 Table 6. Degree of Difference Ratings for Massachusetts by Visit .......... 29 Table 7. Chi-Square Results for Degree of Difference Ratings ................ 31 Table 8. Correctness Ratings for North Carolina by Age Group .............. 35 Table 9. Correctness Ratings for South Carolina by Age Group .............. 35 Table 10. Correctness Ratings for South Dakota by Age Group .............. 36 Table 11. Correctness Ratings for Tennessee by Age Group ................... 36 Table 12. Correctness Ratings for Texas by Age Group........................... 36 Table 13. Correctness Ratings for Virginia by Age Group ....................... 37 Table 14. Correctness Ratings for Maine by Visit .................................... 37 Table 15. Correctness Ratings for Nebraska by Visit ............................... 38 Table 16. Chi-Square Results for Correctness Ratings ............................. 39 Table 17. Pleasantness Ratings for Alabama by Gender .......................... 43 Table 18. Pleasantness Ratings for Kansas by Gender ............................. 43 Table 19. Pleasantness Ratings for Louisiana by Gender ......................... 44 Table 20. Pleasantness Ratings for South Dakota by Gender ................... 44 Table 21. Pleasantness Ratings for Texas by Gender ............................... 45 Table 22. Pleasantness Ratings for Minnesota by Age Group .................. 45 Table 23. Pleasantness Ratings for New Jersey by Age Group ................ 46 Table 24. Pleasantness Ratings for Rhode Island by Age Group ............. 46 Table 25. Pleasantness Ratings for Alaska by Visit .................................. 47 Table 26. Pleasantness Ratings for Kansas by Visit 47 Table 27. Chi-Square Results for Pleasantness Ratings ........................... 48 Table 28. Degree of Difference Ratings (Raw Numbers) ......................... 98 Table 29. Correcness Ratings (Raw Numbers) ......................................... 99 Table 30. Pleasantness Ratings (Raw Numbers) ..................................... 101 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Major American Dialect Regions based on Word Geography Data 3 Figure 2. Major American Dialect Regions based on Vowel Systems ...... 4 Figure 3. Results of Hand-Drawn Maps of a "South" ............................... 18 Figure