This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Shackleton, R. G. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Phonetic Variation in the Traditional English Dialects

A Computational Analysis

U.S. Congressional Budget Office, Washington, D.C.

This article illustrates the utility of a variety of quantitative techniques by applying them to phonetic data from the traditional English dialects. The techniques yield measures of variation in phonetic usage among English localities, identify dialect regions as clusters of localities with relatively similar patterns of usage, distinguish regions of relative uniformity from transitional zones with substantially greater variation, and identify regionally coherent groups of features that can be used to distinguish some dialect regions. Complementing each other, the techniques provide a reasonably objective method for classifying at least some traditional English dialect regions on the basis of characteristic features. The results largely corroborate standard presentations in the literature but differ in the placement of regional boundaries and identification of regional features, as well as in placing those systemic elements in a broader context of largely continuous and often random variation.

Key Words: English dialect • computational linguistics • dialectometry

Journal of English Linguistics, Vol. 35, No. 1, 30-102 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0075424206297857


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?