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Part of
Acquiring Sociolinguistic Variation
Edited by Gunther De Vogelaer and Matthias Katerbow
[Studies in Language Variation 20] 2017
► pp. 185–212

Chapter 7
The relationship between segregation and participation in ethnolectal variants

A longitudinal study

| University of Oregon
| Center for Applied Linguistics
| Kansas State University

The social structure provided by schools may play a significant role in shaping the speech of youth by fostering contact between distinct varieties (Britain 1997; Trudgill 1998). This analysis uses data from a longitudinal study of language and literacy development to explore the role of school demographics in determining trajectories of dialect patterns among African American school children in central North Carolina. Results identify distinct relationships between phonetic and morphosyntactic subsystems and school demographics. These results have implications for educational and policy issues related to the U.S. academic achievement gap and point to the need for further research on factors that influence the language of young speakers.

Keywords: Sociophonetics, adolescence, childhood, vocalic variation, morphosyntactic variation, African American English, longitudinal analysis, dialect density measure, quantitative analysis, segregation, school demographics
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1African American English
    • 1.2Contact-induced change within schools
  • 2.Method
    • 2.1Morphosyntactic data
      • 2.1.1Age 6 (Grade 1)
      • 2.1.2Age 11 (Grade 6), age 13 (Grade 8)
      • 2.1.3Morphosyntactic transcription and coding
    • 2.2Phonetic data
      • 2.2.1Age 9 (Grade 4)
      • 2.2.2Age 13 (Grade 8), age 15 (Grade 10)
      • 2.2.3Vowel measurements
  • 3.Results
    • 3.1Morphosyntactic analysis
    • 3.2Phonetic analysis
      • 3.2.1Descriptive results
      • 3.2.2Statistical analysis
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 30 September 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/silv.20.07far
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