Acquisition of NYC English phonetic features by Caribbean immigrants: a pilot study

Friday, March 5, 2010
4pm, room C197, Graduate Center (365 Fifth Ave.)

Patrick-André Mather
Visiting Scholar (2009-2010)
New York University- FAS Linguistics
Associate Professor of French and Linguistics
Department of Foreign Languages
and Graduate Program in Linguistics
University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras

Recent studies on New York English (Fowler 1986, Labov, Ash and Boberg 2006, Becker 2007) have focused mainly on the speech of Whites and English-Speaking African-Americans. There exist few studies on the acquisition of New York City English by immigrant communities such as the Hispanic Community or African-Americans from different countries (i.e. Haiti). In this sociophonetics research project, I attempt to fill a gap in our knowledge of the structure and variation of the English of non-native and immigrant communities in New York City. In particular, I look at the acquisition (or non-acquisition) of phonetic features of New York English by Puertoricans and Haitians, including the short /a/ split, long /oh/, and the vocalization of /r/. I also look at the sociolinguistic attitudes of immigrants toward NYC English versus standard North American English, using Lambert's (1967) matched-guise technique. The preliminary results of this new research project which will shed light on the integration of immigrant communities within New York City.