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Defining Dialect, Perceiving Dialect, and New Dialect Formation: Sarah Palin’s Speech
Thomas Purnell, PhD*,
Eric Raimy, PhD,
and
Joseph Salmons, PhD
University of Wisconsin-Madison
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: tcpurnell{at}wisc.edu.
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Abstract |
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Nonlinguists prove surprisingly good at recognizing dialects, even as dialects rapidly evolve. During the 2008 U.S. presidential election, Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s speech was intensely discussed among linguists, the media, and laypeople. Though Palin is from Alaska, her speech was often identified with the Upper Midwest. The authors explorewhat this mismatch can tell us about dialects and their perception, starting from a description of Palin’s speech as commented on in the media. They review some pragmatic features and provide quantitative treatment of her "g-dropping." Then, they undertake acoustic analysis of Palin’s vowels and final /z/ devoicing, including Western features and features that create an impression of her speech as Upper Midwestern. Regional settlement history, research on "new dialect formation," and research on perception of variation inform the authors’ finding that a few acoustic and other characteristics trigger a specific national perception of Palin’s verbal behavior.
First published on November 3, 2009, doi:10.1177/0075424209348685
Journal of English Linguistics 2009;37:331.
A more recent version of this article appeared on December 1, 2009
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