Phonetic and Phonological Changes of Noam Chomsky

Abstract

Research Article| May 01 2018 Phonetic and Phonological Changes of Noam Chomsky: A Case Study of Dialect Shift Soohyun Kwon Soohyun Kwon University of Pennsylvania soohyun kwon is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research interests include language variation and change, language change across lifespan, dialect contact and shift, phonological learning, and variation and change at the articulatory level. E-mail: ksuhyun@babel.ling.upenn.edu. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google American Speech (2018) 93 (2): 270–297. https://doi.org/10.1215/00031283-6926146 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter Email Permissions Search Site Citation Soohyun Kwon; Phonetic and Phonological Changes of Noam Chomsky: A Case Study of Dialect Shift. American Speech 1 May 2018; 93 (2): 270–297. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/00031283-6926146 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search nav search search input Search input auto suggest search filter Books & JournalsAll JournalsAmerican Dialect SocietyAmerican Speech Search Advanced Search This study presents acoustic evidence of diachronic accent change of an adult speaker who relocated to a region characterized by dialect features different from those of his home region. Noam Chomsky was chosen as the subject because he examplifies the effects of relocation on adult phonology. Chomsky was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but at his age 27, he moved to Boston, Massachusetts. Three linguistic variables that have different systems in Philadelphia and Boston were examined in this study: (1) /α/-/ɔ/distinction in Philadelphia and /α/-/ɔ/merger in Boston, (2) the split short-a system in Philadelphia and the nasal system in Boston, and (3) strong fronting of /o/in Philadelphia and moderate fronting in Boston. Acoustic analyses of Chomsky’s public speech in 1970 and 2009 show that his /α/has significantly shifted along both F1 and F2 over the 40 years, while /ɔ/remained stable. Despite the substantial shift of /α/, this change has not led to a merger of two vowel categories. Meanwhile, his short-a pattern has gone through a striking phonemic reorganization over the 40-year period; Chomsky exhibited the unsplit pattern in 1970 but by 2009 he appears to have adopted a (somewhat incomplete) nasal system. With regard to /o/, he did not show any significant change, exhibiting only moderate fronting both in 1970 and 2009. This study demonstrates remarkable intraspeaker changes over a lifetime, although the changes did not reach categoricity. Possible social and phonetic factors that play an important role in these changes are discussed. dialect shift, vowel changes, intraspeaker changes, stigmatized social markers, coarticulatory nasality The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Copyright © 2018 American Dialect Society2018 You do not currently have access to this content.

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