EXERCISE 3 Northern Cities Vowel Shift (courtesy of William Labov) An Introduction to Language and Linguistics Chapter 9 Dialect Variation by Natalie Schilling-Estes EXERCISE 3 Northern Cities Vowel Shift (courtesy of William Labov) The recordings of Chicago speech that are used here were made by Dr. Sharon Ash of the Penn Linguistics Lab, who interviewed young women at the University of Illinois, Chicago Circle, and carried out the experiment. For more information on the CDC project, see Labov, William, and Sharon Ash 1997, “Understanding Birmingham,” in C. Bernstein, T. Nunnalaly, and R. Sabino (eds.), Language Variety in the South Revisited. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, pp. 508-573. www.cambridge.org/fasold © Cambridge University Press

These illustrations of the Northern Cities Vowel Shift are taken from a US National Science Foundation-supported research project on “Cross-Dialectal Comprehension,” directed by William Labov. The project tested the ability of listeners in Chicago, IL, Birmingham, AL, and Philadelphia, PA, to recognize advanced forms of sound changes in progress in their own and other cities. Listeners were asked to identify isolated words, then the same words in larger phrases, and finally in complete sentences. See if you can do the same by clicking on the links in the slides that follow….

Word 1. ______________ 2. ______________ 3. ______________ 4. ______________ 5. ______________

Word Phrase Sentence 1 . ______ _____________ ___________________ 2. ______ _____________ ___________________ 3. ______ _____________ ___________________ 4. ______ _____________ ___________________ 5. ______ _____________

Word Phrase Sentence 1 . black _____________ living on one block 2. sacks _____________ had to wear socks 3. dusk _____________ behind the desk 4. bosses _____________ buses with the antennas 5. had _____________ shook her head

The Northern Cities Shift Now let’s see how the various pronunciations fit into the Northern Cities Vowel Shift pattern… desk busses bosses mat head block socks The Northern Cities Shift