A multivariate spatial analysis of vowel formants in American English

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a multivariate spatial analysis of thirty-eight vowel formant variables measured in 236 cities from across the contiguous United States, based on the acoustic data from theAtlas of North American English. The results of the analysis both confirm and challenge the results of theAtlas.Most notably, while the analysis identifies similar patterns as theAtlasin the West and the Southeast, the analysis finds that the Midwest and the Northeast are distinct dialect regions that are considerably stronger than the traditional Midland dialect region identified in theAtlas. The analysis also finds evidence that a vowel shift is actively shaping the language of the Western United States.

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