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Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 1170

Part of Session 167: Fine phonetic detail and sociolinguistic ethnography (Other abstracts in this session)

Phonetic detail and social identity: /t/ realisation in a multiethnic high school

Authors: Kirkham, Sam
Submitted by: Kirkham, Sam (University of Sheffield, United Kingdom)

Studies that combine the analysis of fine-grained phonetic detail with ethnographic observation of the community under study have offered new insights into the range of phonetic features that can be used for making social meaning, as well as revealing the extent to which phonetic detail can be used for identity work (Drager 2009; Alam & Stuart-Smith 2011). This talk contributes towards this growing research enterprise by exploring the ways in which multiple phonetic parameters intersect in the creation of socio-indexical meaning. I draw upon speech data collected during a 15-month ethnographic study of a multiethnic high school in Sheffield, a city in the north of England, in order to analyse the realisation of word-initial /t/.

Data were collected from 68 adolescents of 5 ethnicities in the school (White British; Pakistani; Somali; African Caribbean; Yemeni). Tokens of /t/ in word-initial stressed syllable onsets were extracted from the data for analysis. Acoustic profiling was first carried out in order to identify clusters of acoustic parameters that characterised different types of /t/ realisation (Docherty & Foulkes 2005).  The data were then subject to a number of acoustic measures that captured durational (VOT), spectral (intensity, centre of gravity) and noisiness (zero-crossing rate) properties of the stop.

The results show that, while demographic conceptions of ethnicity explain some aspects of these data, categories grounded in the participants’ social practices better capture the overall variation. The phonetic analysis also demonstrates the utility of considering multiple dimensions of the speech segment, which is discussed in relation to debates surrounding the conception of the sociolinguistic variable (Lavandera 1978; Campbell-Kibler 2011).

References:

Alam, Farhana & Jane Stuart-Smith. 2011. Identity and ethnicity in /t/ in Glasgow-Pakistani high-school girls. Proceedings of the XVII International Congress of Phonetic Sciences. 216-219.

Cambell-Kibler, Kathryn. 2011. The sociolinguistic variant as a carrier of social meaning. Language Variation and Change 22(3): 423-441.

Docherty, Gerry & Paul Foulkes. 2005. Glottal variants of /t/ in the Tyneside variety of English. In: William J. Hardcastle & Janet Mackenzie Beck (eds) A Figure of Speech: A Festschrift for John Laver. London: Lawrence Erlbaum, pp. 173-199.

Drager, Katie. 2009. A Sociophonetic Ethnography of Selwyn Girls’ High. Canterbury, New Zealand: University of Canterbury PhD dissertation.

Lavandera, Beatriz. 1978. Where does the sociolinguistic variable stop? Language in Society 7: 171-182.