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This study considers the dynamic trajectory of fronting of the back vowels boot and boat for 27 speakers in a unique, longstanding context of a substantive, triethnic contact situation involving American Indians, European Americans, and African Americans over three disparate generations in Robeson County, North Carolina. The results indicate that the earlier status of Lumbee English fronting united them with the African American vowel system, particularly for the boot vowel, but that more recent generations have shifted toward alignment with European American speakers. Given that the biracial Southeastern United States historically identified Lumbee Indians as "free persons of color" and the persistent skepticism about the Lumbee Indians as merely a mixed group of European Americans and African Americans, the movement away from the African American pattern toward the European American pattern was interpreted as a case of oppositional identity in which Lumbee Indians disassociate themselves from African American vowel norms in subtle but socially meaningful ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

This study examines use of rising, falling, and level boundary tones across question types in the Corpus of Regional African American Language. Data were taken from interviews with 87 speakers in Washington, D.C.: 53 in the DCA component, conducted in 1968-69, and 34 in the DCB component, conducted in 2015-17. Results of multiple mixed-effects regression models indicate substantial variation within speakers in the use of question tones, as well as possible change over time. In general, speakers in the DCA component demonstrate more variation in the use of falling, level, and rising tones across three question types (i.e., yes-no, discourse, and open-ended [wh-] questions) than speakers in the DCB component. In DCB, speakers appear to use mostly rising and falling tones across the three question types, with few instances of level tones, suggesting a possible change over time and potential convergence toward Mainstream U.S. English (MUSE) norms in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Additionally, data from both DCA and DCB showed intracomponent variation not necessarily conditioned by demographic factors, also supporting previous hypotheses that AAL may have a system with a freer expression of question boundaries than that of MUSE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

This article examines variability in the social factors and internal linguistic constraints on (ING) in African American Language (AAL) based on a comparison of the two Corpus of Regional African American Language (CORAAL) components from Washington, D.C., CORAAL:DCA (recorded 1968-69) and CORAAL:DCB (recorded 2015-17). It also compares DCA with an early study of (ING) in Detroit in 1968. The analysis indicates important differences in how social factors correlate with (ING) over both space and time, as socioeconomic status and gender show differential intersections that distinguish the earlier AAL sample from Washington, D.C., from a comparable AAL sample from Detroit, as well as the D.C. sample a halfcentury later. Internal constraints from the current CORAAL study tend to align with those indicted in other studies, but some minor constraint effects indicate structural diversity. The comparative results point to a more nuanced understanding of the features that characterize AAL over time and place as well as a more informed perspective on how (ING) functions as a general sociolinguistic variable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

This study takes a quantitative approach to exploring topic-based morphosyntactic variation in African American Language (AAL). Using data from 45 speakers from the DCA component of the Corpus of Regional African American Language (CORAAL), stratified for age, gender, and socioeconomic status, this study uses a dialect density measure to compare the rate of AAL morphosyntactic feature use across the topics introduced in these classic sociolinguistic interviews. Chi-square testing and multiple linear regression of the rates of features per utterance reveals significant effect of topic on morphosyntactic feature use rate overall and reveals additional effects of gender, age, and socioeconomic status within topics. The results indicate that topic-based shifting does occur and suggests that certain types of topics are more likely to expose a given individual's range of stylistic variation. Ultimately, it provides evidence for the validity of taking a style-driven approach to data collected using classic sociolinguistic methods pioneered during the first wave of language variation studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

The American South has undergone unprecedented change over the last half century, including the dynamics of ethnic group configuration and ethnolinguistic variation. This article considers symbolic dimensions of language and ethnicity representing three different types of ethnic group situations in the South. Two of the situations, involving Native American Indians and African Americans, represent long-standing ethnic contact situations that are being reconfigured over time and place in the American South; the third situation involves an emerging ethnolinguistic variety related to the more recent influx of large numbers of immigrants from Mexico and Central America. Demographic, economic, social, and cultural-ideological variables come into play in each case, but the relative contribution of these factors varies for different situations. It is further essential to recognize the intersection of sociohistorical and sociopsychological factors with the dynamics of linguistic structures and properties that has led to different outcomes in the ethnolinguistic configuration of various groups. Though the moniker "New South" may be applicable to the contemporary configuration of language and ethnicity compared with the past, we demonstrate how each situation is also unique and complex in its own right. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...