A Sociophonetic Study of the Urban Bahamian Creole Vowel System

List of Figures
List of Tables
Abstract
Introduction
English, creole and the Bahamas
Terminological issues
Creole languages
Bahamian Creole
A short sociohistory of the Bahamas
Sociolinguistic variation in the Caribbean
Modelling synchronic variation
Language attitudes
Functional distribution in social domains
Evaluative reactions
Studies of sociolinguistic parameters
Ethnicity
Socioeconomic status
Age
Gender
Beyond the `Labovian' social stratification framework
Functional and stylistic variation
Phonological versus grammatical variation
Creole phonology
Origin of creole phonologies
Substrate influence
Superstrate influence
Group second language acquisition and language universals
General characteristics of Caribbean creole vowel systems
Sociophonetics and the analysis of vowels
Important frameworks for the sociolinguistic analysis of vowels
Acoustic analysis of vowel quality
Acoustic studies of Caribbean creole vowels
The Bahamian Creole vowel system
Research objective and general research questions
Methodology
Conversational data
Map task and citation form data
Speakers and recording conditions
Elicitation materials and recording
Citation form data
Map task data
General analysis procedure
Preprocessing of recordings
Segmentation and measurements
Vowel normalisation
Statistical testing
Diphthongs
FACE and GOAT
FACE and GOAT in Bahamian varieties
Monophthongisation of FACE and GOAT
Monophthongisation - a creole feature?
Contextual factors influencing monophthongisation
Research questions and hypotheses
Analysis procedure
Results
Visual inspection
Variation across tasks: EDcentroid
FACE
GOAT
Variation across tasks: ED
FACE
GOAT
Social variation: Conversational data
FACE
GOAT
Social variation: Map task and citation form data
FACE
GOAT
Summary
MOUTH and PRICE
MOUTH and PRICE in Bahamian varieties
Voicing-conditioned alternation in MOUTH and PRICE
Pre-voiceless raising
Glide weakening
Asymmetric Assimilation
Research questions and hypotheses
Analysis procedure
Results
Visual inspection
Variation across tasks
MOUTH
PRICE
Variation in the conversational data
MOUTH
PRICE
Variation in the map task and citation form data
MOUTH
PRICE
Summary
CHOICE and NURSE
CHOICE and NURSE in Bahamian varieties
Non-rhotic pronunciation in North America
Upgliding diphthong in NURSE
Research questions and hypotheses
Analysis procedure
Results
Rhoticity in NURSE
Visual inspection
Variation across speech styles
Social variation in the conversational data
Social variation in the map task data
Social variation in the citation form data
Summary
Monophthongs
Nominal monophthongs in Bahamian varieties
Spectral and temporal interactions
Variation in vowel duration
Spectral and temporal contributions to phonemic distinctions
Spectral and temporal overlap in Jamaican varieties
Research questions and hypotheses
Analysis procedure
Results
Cross-comparison of vowel quality
Cross-comparison of vowel quantity
Variation in low vowels
Conversational data
Citation form data
Variation in mid back vowels
Conversational data
Citation form data
Spectral and temporal overlap
Summary
General discussion
System and variation in urban Bahamian speech
Urban Bahamian vowel inventories
Social variation and diagnostic vocalic variables
Rhoticity
Focus on the individual
Across speech styles
Phonological versus morphological variation
Cross-varietal comparison of vowel variants
Conclusion
Appendices
Recording materials
Number of tokens per speaker
Linguistic ranking of speakers across speech styles
Bibliography