LING 320 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: William Labov, African American Vernacular English, Phonetic Transcription
9 Mar 2016
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Questionnaires used to mostly focus on non-mobile older rural males (basically old farmers) Were believed to speak the regular variation of a given language. Women (farmer"s wife) were surveyed for vocabulary of things like domestic objects, the kitchen, cooking and cleaning. Emphasis was on less educated, more traditional speakers. But there was also a focus on more educated men and women as well. There was some attempt to focus on variability. Not really on social variability; mostly on regional variability. Maps are easier to make on a computer, and geographical areas are easier to identify with modern technology. Began in 1970s with the work of william labov. Discovered that you could use spectrographic analysis to analyze the sound waves that are associated with human speech. You can analyze the frequency of bands with relatively high amplitudes (formants) Gives you a good idea of what the tongue position is in the mouth of the speaker.
