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Part of
Sociolinguistic Variation and Language Acquisition across the Lifespan
Edited by Anna Ghimenton, Aurélie Nardy and Jean-Pierre Chevrot
[Studies in Language Variation 26] 2021
► pp. 161–182

Chapter 7
Variation in stress in the Jamaican classroom

| Université Lumière Lyon 2

This article investigates how Jamaican schoolchildren aged 7 respond to their teachers’ production of stress. Based on a larger sociolinguistic study (Lacoste 2012), the data concerns particularly the production of a Standard Jamaican English (SJE) speech pattern that was observed in the classroom setting, i.e. phonetic exaggeration of the three stress correlates: duration, pitch and loudness in word-final syllables. Statistical results show a recurrent use of high levels of the stress correlates including lengthening of vowels in word-final syllables in the children’s speech. The lengthening of vowels in word-final position may be aimed at facilitating the children’s learning of the standard English variety.

Keywords: word-final vowel lengthening, pitch and loudness, Standard Jamaican English, L2 learning, rural Jamaica
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Phonostylistic variation in children’s speech
    • 2.1Vowel length and word-level prominence in English and Jamaican
    • 2.2Stylistic variation
  • 3.Methods for data analysis
    • 3.1Vowel duration
    • 3.2Pitch
    • 3.3Loudness
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Teachers
    • 4.2Children
      • 4.2.1Vowel lengthening and pitch
      • 4.2.2Vowel lengthening and loudness
      • 4.2.3Pitch and loudness combined
      • 4.2.4Word-final vowel lengthening and Task
  • 5.Discussion and conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 16 August 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/silv.26.07lac
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