Chicano influences in California English

I was just reading the Wikipedia article on California English, and I saw something interesting:
"Some hold that some Chicano English influences may be found in the speech of non-Chicano English speakers in California, such as the presence of "yes" and "no" as tag questions (traditionally not found in most varieties of English) or the /ɪŋ/ → /iŋ/ process mentioned above "

I have heard this from many Californians: e.g. they will pronounce the word "think" as "theenk", and "going" as "goeeng". I have never heard these pronunciations from anyone not from California. But I am wondering if this is really Chicano influence. In the Pacific Northwest, we have a similar feature, although it affects only two syllable words that end in -ing, but it also reduces the -ing to simply -n: "going" -> "goeen". So, is the phenomenon that is found in California related to the one we have up here, or is it really Chicano influence? The phenomenon here definitely couldn't be because of Chicano influence, because we don't have a large population of Mexicans. Most of the immigrants here are from Europe and Japan and China.

Also, does anyone not from California have those pronunciations?

Another thing I noticed is that some Californians pronounce "thing" as [TeN] "thayng". Is this due to the California vowel shift: [TIN] -> *[TEN] -> [TeN] ?

Californians typically don't pronounce "tin" or "ten" the same way. The way you'd go about recognizing a California dialect is "Valley girl" in girls and "Surfer dude" in males. One of the most interesting features is vowel fronting of back vowels when they're longer. (moon being pronounced more like moen).

>> Californians typically don't pronounce "tin" or "ten" the same way <<

No, no. I know most Californians are not tin-ten merged. I was writing in SAMPA.

[TIN] -> *[TEN] -> [TeN] ?

is really:
thing -> theng -> thayng

>>Another thing I noticed is that some Californians pronounce "thing" as [TeN] "thayng". Is this due to the California vowel shift: [TIN] -> *[TEN] -> [TeN] ? <<

I suspect this is a form that has just become common in Californian English for whatever which is unrelated to the CVS and for that matter is not a particularly recent innovation at all, as "thang" also shows up in Southern NAE dialects as well.

>>I was just reading the Wikipedia article on California English, and I saw something interesting:
"Some hold that some Chicano English influences may be found in the speech of non-Chicano English speakers in California, such as the presence of "yes" and "no" as tag questions (traditionally not found in most varieties of English) or the /ɪŋ/ → /iŋ/ process mentioned above " <<

The placement of "yes" (or more commonly "yeah" or "ja" (that's pronounced [ja:] if you're wondering) IMD) in final position also shows up in my dialect, even though such often is not a tag-question per se but rather in an answer to a question or a statement which is a response to another statement which is an implicit question of sorts. Consequently, I would not be so quick to assume that is due to Chicano English influence; my dialect, at least, most definitely is not under such influence at all, but rather the influence totally different substrata altogether.

I agree with Travis. Kirk, who used to post here, is from California, and if I remember correctly, he pronounces "thing" as ["TeN], but all of the other "-ing" words with ["iN]. I'm pretty sure that this feature (which, as Travis points out, is shared by other dialects) is unrelated to the CVS.

I'm from California, and I don't think I do any of the things mentioned in this thread, and I'm sure I don' use "yes" or "no" as tag questions, nor have I heard anyone do so...

By tag questions do you mean something like: You like dogs, yes? If so, then no we don't do that, if not, forgive me for misunderstanding you.

>> By tag questions do you mean something like: You like dogs, yes?

Yes, that's what a tag question is. Another example: "It's a beautiful day, no?" I hear this type of construction all the time where I live (Los Angeles), mostly from Chicanos and other Latino-Americans.

>>>> By tag questions do you mean something like: You like dogs, yes?

Yes, that's what a tag question is. Another example: "It's a beautiful day, no?" I hear this type of construction all the time where I live (Los Angeles), mostly from Chicanos and other Latino-Americans.<<

That is probably different from "yeah", "ja", or "yes" showing up in final position here, as negative particles never show up in final position here, unlike in the example you mention above.

<<<<<The way you'd go about recognizing a California dialect is "Valley girl" in girls and "Surfer dude" in males. One of the most interesting features is vowel fronting of back vowels when they're longer. (moon being pronounced more like moen).>>>>>


Yeah, Skippy? And where did you get that little piece of information from? "The O.C."?

Give me a break. True California dialect is nothing like that. Trust me, I would have shot myself by now if people over here REALLY talked like that.

tin = ten [tEn]
is bakersfield CA pronunciation
they have received many texas' (im)migrants.

>>>>>(moon being pronounced more like moen).>>>>>

This is true of British English and Canadian English too.
And ''move'' is something like ''meuve''...
Californian pronunciation of ''cool'' can be found in ''kewl'' spelling ;)
And ''noo'' (new) is ''nyoo'' again ;)
Mom is mawm ;) and not mahm

that's just it ;)

In California English, there is a chain shift going on in the direction of:

[I] → [E]
[E] → [{]
[{] → [a]
[A] → [Q]

And [u] tends to move toward [M] or [1].

to sarcastic californian:

I'm from Texas but I'm been going to SDSU for almost four years...Trust me...The California dialect sounds to one degree or another like Valley Girl or Surfer Dude...

And you mention the O.C....listen to how those folks talk and that's basically what I have to listen to every day...

My girlfriend and I argue this all the time, but she seemed to be the only person who disagree with me... No one in the Linguistics department at SDSU has. Most of the information I know about California English is directly from them...