The short A pattern of Philadelphia among African-American Speakers

Anita Henderson

Sat. 2:00-3:40 A

Labov's (1989) study of tense and lax short A among Philadelphians provides a detailed description of this complex linguistic variable for white speakers. My study, using similar methods, investigates short A among African-American speakers in Philadelphia. The study examines how closely these African-Americans match the Philadelphia short A pattern. Interviews with approximately 30 African-American speakers were conducted. The speakers are evenly divided across four age groups and range in age from 8 to 81. Each age group has an equal number of males and females. Following Labov, formal elicitation methods were employed (word lists, sentence blanks, and semantic differential). In addition, casual speech was elicited from speakers through short interviews. The spontaneous tokens of the interview are contrasted with the tokens obtained through the formal elicitations. In addition to the race-based analysis that this data provides, the effect of age and sex on the short A pattern is also discussed.

Two notable points made in the study by Labov (1989) are that (1) African-American speakers "with very few exceptions" have a different short A pattern and that (2) the short A pattern of Philadelphia holds across social classes. The exception made concerning the short A pattern of African-Americans is well documented; however, this study expands Labov's observation. The African-Americans in this study are all products of substantially integrated environments. The speakers either live(d) in integrated neighborhoods, attend(ed) to integrated schools, and/or work(ed) in integrated environments. The social class of the speakers range from upper working class to upper middle class. In spite of their contact with whites, the speakers view themselves as a quite separate community from their white coworkers, schoolmates, and neighbors. In addition, although the speakers identify themselves as black, they reject the notion that blacks form one cultural group and view themselves as a different community from economically disadvantaged blacks. Given the exceptional social position that these speakers occupy, this study provides a description of their membership in the Philadelphia speech community. In short, this study explores how social class as well as integration into residential, educational, and occupational parts of the white community impact the phonological system of African-Americans.

Reference

Labov. W. 1989. Exact description of the speech community: Short A in Philadelphia. Language Change and Variation, ed. by R. Fasold and D. Schiffrin, 1-57. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.