The Effect of Borders on the Linguistic Production and Perception of Regional Identity in Louisville, Kentucky
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THE EFFECT OF BORDERS ON THE LINGUISTIC PRODUCTION AND PERCEPTION OF REGIONAL IDENTITY IN LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY BY JENNIFER SUZANNE CRAMER DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2010 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Professor Rakesh M. Bhatt, Chair Professor Eyamba G. Bokamba Assistant Professor Adrienne Lo Professor Dennis R. Preston, Oklahoma State University ABSTRACT A great deal of scholarly research has addressed the issue of dialect mapping in the United States. These studies, usually based on phonetic or lexical items, aim to present an overall picture of the dialect landscape. But what is often missing in these types of projects is an attention to the borders of a dialect region and to what kinds of identity alignments can be found in such areas. This lack of attention to regional and dialect border identities is surprising, given the salience of such borders for many Americans. This salience is also ignored among dialectologists, as nonlinguists‟ perceptions and attitudes have been generally assumed to be secondary to the analysis of “real” data, such as the phonetic and lexical variables used in traditional dialectology. Louisville, Kentucky is considered as a case study for examining how dialect and regional borders in the United States impact speakers‟ linguistic acts of identity, especially the production and perception of such identities. According to Labov, Ash, and Boberg (2006), Louisville is one of the northernmost cities to be classified as part of the South. Its location on the Ohio River, on the political and geographic border between Kentucky and Indiana, places Louisville on the isogloss between Southern and Midland dialects. Through an examination of language attitude surveys, mental maps, focus group interviews, and production data, I show that identity alignments in borderlands are neither simple nor straightforward. Identity at the border is fluid, complex, and dynamic; speakers constantly negotiate and contest their identities. The analysis shows the ways in which Louisvillians shift between Southern and non-Southern identities, in the active and agentive expression of their amplified awareness of belonging brought about by their position on the border. ii For Aaron Michael, Isabelle Lorene, and the little one iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS During the course of this project, I have received a great amount of love, support, and encouragement from so many people. I would like to first thank Dr. Rakesh Bhatt for the countless hours spent helping me make this project a reality. Thank you so much for being such a great advisor and mentor. You have certainly prepared me well for an academic career, and for that, I am grateful. I would also like to thank my committee members: Dr. Eyamba Bokamba, Dr. Adrienne Lo, and Dr. Dennis Preston. I am so thankful for the encouragement and guidance you have each provided me during the course of this project. Many thanks for the comments and feedback you have provided; these additions have certainly made the dissertation better. For certain technical aspects of the dissertation, I would also like to thank the nice people in the Geographical Information Systems division of ATLAS, who helped with the preparation of the regional map and with my understanding of ArcGIS. I also had help with the phonetics aspect of this dissertation from the graduate student workers in the Illinois Phonetics & Phonology Lab. I could not have done this work without the help of Meg Osfar, Chris Carignan, and especially Shawn Chang, who provided a great deal of guidance. The support of my colleagues in the Dissertation Discussion Group and the Language and Society Discussion Group was also greatly appreciated. Our discussions helped me to better understand certain aspects of our field. I thank you all for the feedback and for the chance to share my work with you. In a similar vein, I would also like to thank the audiences from LSA 2009 and ADS 2010 for their comments and suggestions. I must also thank all of my friends and family who have really been my strength throughout this whole process. You were very encouraging and provided me a chance to take a iv break from the stress of writing the dissertation. I want to thank Isabelle for helping me learn how to play again and for being a shining light in my life. You have been the ultimate motivation for finishing this degree. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, I want to thank my husband, Aaron. You have truly made this whole thing possible! It‟s been wonderful having you, the one who went there first, by my side, being wonderful and understanding. In addition to the moral support, you provided invaluable technical support, which made the work a lot easier. You are awesome! I love you! v TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 1 1 Overview .............................................................................................................................. 1 2 Summary of Results ........................................................................................................... 11 3 Organization of Dissertation .............................................................................................. 12 CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE ....................................................................... 15 1 Overview ............................................................................................................................ 15 2 Previous Research .............................................................................................................. 15 3 Theoretical Framework ...................................................................................................... 49 4 Discussion .......................................................................................................................... 73 CHAPTER 3: ABOUT LOUISVILLE ......................................................................................... 75 1 Overview ............................................................................................................................ 75 2 General Information ........................................................................................................... 75 3 At a Geographic and Political Border ................................................................................ 77 4 At a Linguistic Border ....................................................................................................... 79 5 At a Historic Border ........................................................................................................... 80 6 At a Cultural Border........................................................................................................... 84 7 At a Perceptual Border ....................................................................................................... 86 8 Discussion .......................................................................................................................... 87 CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH DESIGN ........................................................................................... 88 1 Overview ............................................................................................................................ 88 2 Perceptual Dialectology ..................................................................................................... 88 3 Production of Identity ........................................................................................................ 95 4 Perception of Identity ....................................................................................................... 104 5 Discussion ........................................................................................................................ 111 CHAPTER 5: PERCEPTUAL DIALECTOLOGY IN LOUISVILLE ...................................... 112 1 Overview .......................................................................................................................... 112 2 Mental Maps .................................................................................................................... 112 3 Language Attitudes .......................................................................................................... 139 4 Labels and Open-Ended Responses ................................................................................. 157 5 Discussion ........................................................................................................................ 166 CHAPTER 6: THE SOUTHERN VOWEL SHIFT AND PRODUCTION OF IDENTITY ..... 168 1 Overview .......................................................................................................................... 168 2 Analysis............................................................................................................................ 169 vi 3 Expressions of Southernness in Context .......................................................................... 197 4 Discussion ........................................................................................................................ 208 CHAPTER 7: PERCEIVING LOUISVILLE ............................................................................. 210 1 Overview .........................................................................................................................