Origins of Missouri English - A Historical Sociophonetic Analysis

Working with archival recordings, the authors trace the history of Missouri English and demonstrate how the voices of Missourians born over a century ago provide a unique window on the development of many of the pronunciation features that separate modern American dialects.

List of contents

Chapter 1. Missouri: History and Dialectology
Chapter 2. Historical Sociophonetics
Chapter 3. Automated Formant Estimation and Old Recordings
Chapter 4. Materials and Methods of Analysis
Chapter 5. The Pin-Pen Merger
Chapter 6. The Low-Back Vowel Merger
Chapter 7. force, north, and start
Chapter 8. The Southern Shift
Chapter 9. The Northern Cities Shift and the Low-Back-Vowel Merger Shift
Chapter 10. What's in a Vowel? The Pronunciation of Missouri
Chapter 11. Wrapping Up and Looking Forward

About the author

Christopher Strelluf is associate professor of linguistics at the University of Warwick.
Matthew J. Gordon is professor of English at the University of Missouri, Columbia.

Product details

• Authors: Matthew J. Gordon, Gordon Matthew J., Christopher Strelluf, Christopher Gordon Strelluf
• Publisher: Lexington Books
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.12.2023
• EAN: 9781498597265
• ISBN: 978-1-4985-9726-5
• No. of pages: 328
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > Other languages / Other literatures; Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; English, Missouri, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / General, Society & culture: general, Phonetics, phonology, History of the Americas, Society and culture: general