Research
- Columbus Euro-American English
- Columbus Afro-American English
- Chicago Suburban Adolescent English
Columbus European American English
Central Ohio Dialect Survey/A Century of Language Change in Columbus (2004-Ongoing)
My work on phonetic variation in European American English in Columbus has focused on three components: a) the analysis of consonantal and vocalic variation among working and middle class European Americans; b) the documentation of patterns of language change and variation among speakers from both a diachronic and synchronic standpoint; c) the cross-generational social and geographic transmission and diffusion of patterns of language change and variation among speakers across time in the larger Columbus metropolitan area.
Dissertation Work and Related Research
As my work has focused on several aspects of dialect variation in Columbus among European Americans, I have created a separate Web site discussing this work: A Century of Language Change in Columbus (CLCC) Project Web site. This Web site contains all of my relevant Columbus European American English research, including the material that will comprise my dissertation A New Perspective on Vowel Variation across the 20th Century in Columbus, OH. To see work in progress from my dissertation, go to the CLCC Results and CLCC Presentations pages. These include sections for recent papers, presentations, and data analysis from my dissertation, as well as links to my pre-dissertation research work on Columbus.
Columbus African American English
My work on phonetic variation in African American English in Columbus has focused on two components: a) both consonantal and vocalic variation among working and middle class African Americans; b) the comparison of these patterns of phonetic variation among African Americans with corresponding patterns of variation found in the speech of European Americans of similar class backgrounds.
Phonetics: A Comparison of White and Blue Collar African American and European American Vowel Systems in Columbus (2 Papers Total)
Durian, David, Jennifer Schumacher, and Melissa Reynard. 2007. Apart and yet a part: Social class, convergence, and the vowel systems of Columbus, OH AA(V)E and EAE. Manuscript. (PDF)/(PPT)
Durian, David. Robin Dodsworth, and Jennifer Schumacher. 2010. Convergence in blue collar Columbus, Ohio African American and White vowel systems? In Malcah Yeager-Dror and Erik R. Thomas (Eds.). AAE speakers and their participation in local sound changes: A comparative study. Publication of the American Dialect Society, 94. Durham, NC: Duke Univeristy Press. pp. 161-190. (PDF)
Phonetics: A Comparison of African American and European American /l/ vocalization patterns in Columbus
Durian, David. 2008. The vocalization of /l/ in urban blue collar Columbus, OH AAVE: A quantitative sociophonetic analysis. The Ohio State Working Papers in Linguistics, 58:31-53. (PDF)
The Suburban Chicago Adolescent Sociolect Project (1997-1999)
The Suburban Chicago Adolescent Sociolect Project (SCASP) was a field recording project I carried out in March, 1997. During the course of the project, I obtained data from 19 adolescent speakers of a sociolect spoken in the Chicago Suburb of Homewood-Flossmoor. The speakers, ranging from ages 13-23, were recorded via a series of 19 sociolingusitic interviews. Additionally, a series of naturally occurring conversations elicited from a subgroup of the speakers were recorded at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, IL, during an outing in March 1997. The tapes from this outing, now referred as the "zoo study" are comprised of several hours of conversation rich with sociolectal, performative, and stylistic variation.
Related Papers and Audio Data
Papers
Lane, Lisa Ann, and David Durian. (1997). Linguistic individuation and conformity among Suburban Chicago adolescents. Paper presented at NWAV(E) 26 in Laval, Canada. Abstract (PDF)/ Paper (PDF)
Recorded Data (MP3s)
Great Ape House--"Zoo Tape" Excerpt 1 (see Lane/Durian (1997) for transcript) (Lincoln Park "Zoo Tape," Recorded March 8, 1997)
This audio tape excerpt is referenced as excerpt 1 in Lane & Durian (1997). Click on the link above to listen to this excerpt (To download excerpt, right click on the link and choose "Save As.")
Llamas --"Zoo Tape" Excerpt 2 (see Lane/Durian (1997) for transcript) (Lincoln Park "Zoo Tape," Recorded March 8, 1997)
This audio tape excerpt is referenced as excerpt 2 in Lane & Durian (1997). Click on the link above to listen to this excerpt (To download excerpt, right click on the link and choose "Save As.")
Hot Chocolate --"Zoo Tape" Excerpt 3 (Lincoln Park "Zoo Tape," Recorded March 8, 1997)
Click on the link above to listen to this excerpt (To download excerpt, right click on the link and choose "Save As."