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My Accent
>> I met a young man from Boise the other day who didn't seem to have a trace of the Rocky Mountain Dialect with which I'm familiar <<
Are there any audio clips of the Rocky Mountain dialect?
I looked high and low for a sample, but was unsuccessful. As mentioned before, the single most eminent speaker I know is former Rep. Enid Greene, formerly Waldholtz) from Utah, but I cannot find a sample of her speech, either.
The Rocky Mountain dialect seems to be disappearing except in its Utah stronghold, although admittedly this is a premature speculation. It sounds like GAE with strong "country" influences, marked by rounded and backed vowels spoken similarly to Inland Southern Speech; in common day parlance, you could say it sounds like a combination of Western Speech and Southern Speech. It's possible that samples exist on the "Please call Stella" database of American English speakers, but try as I might, I cannot find this database; could anyone help?
>> marked by rounded and backed vowels spoken similarly to Inland Southern Speech <<
Isn't Southern American English noted for its *fronting* of historical back vowels? >> It's possible that samples exist on the "Please call Stella" database of American English speakers, but try as I might, I cannot find this database; could anyone help? << http://accent.gmu.edu/
Guest, I should have been more specific. When I refer to backed and rounded vowels, I'm specifically referring to vowels spoken before an "r"; that is, in words like "before" and "bar", the vowels are spoken further in the back of the mouth along with the backed "r".
I listened to the speaker from Utah on the gmu website. Being only 30, he doesn't seem to speak in the Rocky Mountain Dialect with which I'm familiar, although there are some other unusual characteristics in the sample (i.e. monophthongization of certain vowels). To be fair, the sample from New Orleans is much different, too, from what I know to be a New Orleans accent--the speaker isn't even non-rhotic. This all goes to show you that our language is changing rapidly, probably due to mass migration and mass media, and the always-present inherent tendency of spoken language to metamorphize. (It must be remembered that the much-discussed California Vowel Shift is only 20-25 years old.) I wish I could find a sample of the Rocky Mountain Dialect, but I cannot locate a single one on the Web. Perhaps the point is moot, anyway, with a dialect that seems to be disappearing. Keeping in mind that the speaker in this thread is apparently in his early 20s, it's possible that he's from Salt Lake City. I haven't compared the two samples closely enough to say for certain. I wish Francis would tell us his city of origin--the suspense is killing me.
I'm guessing Seattle. Check this out:
Pacific Northwest English vowel space http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Pacific_Northwest_English_vowel_space.PNG The red squares represent Seattle, the blue ones Vancouver, and the green ones Portland, OR. Out of the three, look at how conservative the dialect in Seattle is. It appears to be the most conservative. For example, /{/ is highest compared to the other two cities, /E/ is as well. The other two cities have it closer to /{/. /u/ and /i/ are the most differentiated: u is backer than the other two, and /i/ is the most front. It seems that Vancouver and Portland have much more of the CVS, compared to Seattle, which has little or none--exactly as this speaker has.
I listened to the sample again, and it still does not strike me as sounding Canadian. There are some elements of either the California Vowel Shift or Canadian Shift, but the way Francis pronounces the words "sorry" and "veterinary" is clearly non-Canadian. I suppose it could be from Vancouver, British Columbia, but I am still under the impression that Francis is from the United States.
I can tell you with confidence that Francis is clearly not from anywhere in the Inland North dialect region, as he clearly lacks even the slightest hint of the Northern Cities Vowel Shift. I did not hear any clear examples of Canadian Raising, as Francis's pronunciations of "like" and "price" are more aligned with that of the General American dialect. This is the sort of dialect that could be a toned-down (albeit California Vowel Shifted) dialect from any region, as it is quite difficult to place due to the inconsistent nature of Western dialects as a whole. You can safely remove Chicago, IL; Flint, MI; and Rochester, NY from the list. Calgary, AB; Aberdeen, SD; and Albany, NY are probably safe to remove as well. If Francis is from the Pacific Northwest or Montana, I believe it safe to assume that he is under the age of thirty-five, and has adopted many elements from the California Vowel Shift. As others have stated, the dialect seems to lack Southern features; therefore, it is probably safe to assume that he is not from Charleston, SC or Dallas, TX. I believe Miami, FL is still a possibility, but in general, I am not familiar with Miami dialects. Due to the dialect sounding a bit more Western than Midwestern or Eastern, I will say that Portland, OR; Seattle, WA; Tucson, AZ; Boise, ID; Denver, CO; and Helena, MT are all very good possibilities. Francis, if you are still with us, please tell us the answer.
Interesting analysis, 1 and Travis. Although extremely contradictory:
T= Travis 1: There are some elements of either the California Vowel Shift or Canadian Shift T: Francis is likely not from California or anywhere near it in the southwestern US... due to the unlowered historical /{/ and the lack of unrounding of historical rounded back vowels. 1: but the way Francis pronounces the words "sorry" and "veterinary" is clearly non-Canadian. T: Sorry" is ["sOr\i]; this in itself indicates that Francis is probably from somewhere in the far North of the US. 1: I did not hear any clear examples of Canadian Raising, as Francis's pronunciations of "like" and "price" are more aligned with that of the General American dialect. T: Canadian Raising is clearly present for historical /aI_^/ 1: This is the sort of dialect that could be a toned-down (albeit California Vowel Shifted) dialect from any region T: these indicate that Francis likely has neither the NCVS nor the California Vowel Shift.
The second pair of "contradictions" is not really contradictory at all; in fact, I percieve concurrence.
As for the fourth pair, I think I would have to agree with Travis in that I don't hear any trace of CVS at all. My final vote is still for Seattle, WA, as the most likely place of origin.
I wonder why some people think they hear traces of the California/Canadian vowel shift?
Apropos previous post: that was supposed to be "perceive", not "percieve"; I had a "brain fart".
<<I wonder why some people think they hear traces of the California/Canadian vowel shift?>> Guest, I've wondered that, too, especially in terms of the California Vowel Shift, which is usually very easy to detect. Francis might have some watered-down features of the CVS, but if he does, I can't hear them. I know too little about the Canadian Vowel Shift to comment on it. Francis himself must be loving every minute of this debate.
>>1: There are some elements of either the California Vowel Shift or Canadian Shift
T: Francis is likely not from California or anywhere near it in the southwestern US... due to the unlowered historical /{/ and the lack of unrounding of historical rounded back vowels.<< Historical /æ/ in Francis's speech sample does not seem to actually that close to [a], which would make it sound like historical /ɑː/ to me, but rather seems closer to that in conservative General American. I myself have often heard Californians use a lower vowel closer to my [a] for such. In retrospect, though, that does not necessarily rule out something like the Californian Vowel Shift, as many NAE dialects have a relatively high realization of historical /æ/ to begin with (compared to, say, many English English dialects). However, it cannot be the Calfornian Vowel Shift proper, as Francis seems to still have a phonemic distinction between historical /ɑː/ and /ɔː/, even though it is not very salient as the distinguishing factor seems to be purely a relatively limited amount of rounding alone. >>1: but the way Francis pronounces the words "sorry" and "veterinary" is clearly non-Canadian. T: Sorry" is ["sOr\i]; this in itself indicates that Francis is probably from somewhere in the far North of the US.<< GA has [ˈsɑ(ː)ɹi(ː)] (and many GA-like varieties have [ˈsä(ː)ɹi(ː)]) for "sorry", such that it is homophonous with "sari". Rounding of such tends to be rather regional, showing up in Canada or the far North of the US. >>1: I did not hear any clear examples of Canadian Raising, as Francis's pronunciations of "like" and "price" are more aligned with that of the General American dialect. T: Canadian Raising is clearly present for historical /aI_^/<< Mind you that very many GA-like varieties today have at least weak raising of historical /aɪ̯/, particularly more northern GA-like varieties, for starters. Also, though, the key indicator of Canadian Raising is simply that the starting point of historical /aɪ̯/ is more open in environments where it is expected than in environments where it is not; the actual difference in openness need not be very large. (Note that I say historical /aɪ̯/, as some dialects such as my own have a phonemic split of it with and without Canadian Raising, due to certain words not undergoing Canadian Raising where one would expect it within the dialect's own normal rules for Canadian Raising.) >>1: This is the sort of dialect that could be a toned-down (albeit California Vowel Shifted) dialect from any region T: these indicate that Francis likely has neither the NCVS nor the California Vowel Shift.<< I might concede that Francis has traces of a Californian Vowel Shift, but that would only restrict where Francis lives further, to the Pacific Northwest south of Canada. The reason is that Francis does not have sufficiently strong Canadian Raising to be from Canada, and lacks a complete cot-caught merger, which also rules out Canada. Yet the realization of "sorry" very clearly places Francis in at least the far North of the US. And, of course, the only part of the northern US with any influence at all from the Californian Vowel Shift is the Pacific Northwest.
I highly doubt it. Listen to this sample:
http://web.ku.edu/idea/northamerica/usa/washington/washington.htm It is not very similar at all.
Mind you that there can be a lot of variation within a relatively small area speech variety-wise. One cannot count on a single speech sample as being exemplary for an area as wide as a single state and for people of all ages in that area. At least here in southeastern Wisconsin, younger people do not sound like middle-aged people do not sound like older people, and the dialect in southeastern Wisconsin in turn is quite distinct from that in many other parts of the state. I remember being up by Green Bay, and the people there spoke a quite different dialect from that in Milwaukee, and only about 50 miles away in Gresham they spoke a dialect very distinct from both that in Milwaukee and that in Green Bay.
↑ I agree, Travis. In one of those speech databases, I found at least two anomalies, i.e. individual speakers who did not fit the norm for the local speech patterns.
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