The sociolinguistics of the [a] ‐ [b] merger in pacific northwest English: A subjective reaction test1

Abstract

Techniques developed for the study of sociolinguistic variation are applied to evaluation of ah/aw mergers which characterize Pacific Northwest Coast speech. Both natives to the area and newcomers from the East assign low status to the merged forms in spite of the increasing tendency toward their use. This surprising result is considered in terms of various methodological explanations, of the notion of covert norms, and of structural factors which may override sociolinguistic processes.

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