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The English Prosodic Rhythm of African Americans and Haitian Americans in South Florida

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Název: The English Prosodic Rhythm of African Americans and Haitian Americans in South Florida
Autoři: Nandi Sims
Zdroj: American Speech: A Quarterly of Linguistic Usage. 100:367-400
Informace o vydavateli: Duke University Press, 2025.
Rok vydání: 2025
Témata: 0602 languages and literature, 05 social sciences, 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences, 06 humanities and the arts
Popis: In the study of prosodic rhythm, English is typically characterized as having high durational variability between syllables; however, contact with languages with low variability can lower the durational variability of an English variety. South Florida’s history of contact between English and numerous Caribbean varieties predicts this type of altered prosodic rhythm. This study explores contact effects in the prosodic rhythm of South Florida African Americans and Haitian Americans by comparing their English rhythm to that of South Florida Cuban Americans and North Carolina African Americans. South Florida African American and Haitian American rhythms did not significantly differ from each other or from North Carolina African Americans for any of the four rhythm measures used: pairwise variability index of vowel segments (nPVI-V), ratio of the summed vowel durations to the duration of the entire phrase (%V), standard deviation of the consonantal segment durations (ΔC), and ΔC normalized for individual speaking rates (varcoC). Both the South Florida African American and Haitian American groups had significantly higher durational variability than that of the Cuban American group in three of the four measures. Within the Haitian American group, participants with higher Haitian Creole usage had significantly more durational variability than those with low Haitian Creole use, contrary to what bilingualism with Haitian Creole predicts. The results suggest prosodic rhythm variation is not necessarily due solely to transfer or substrate effects from other languages; rather, there may be social reasons for rhythm variation.
Druh dokumentu: Article
Jazyk: English
ISSN: 1527-2133
0003-1283
DOI: 10.1215/00031283-10867262
Přístupové číslo: edsair.doi...........65140907b5f7f754ceb9daddacf5d416
Databáze: OpenAIRE
Popis
Abstrakt:In the study of prosodic rhythm, English is typically characterized as having high durational variability between syllables; however, contact with languages with low variability can lower the durational variability of an English variety. South Florida’s history of contact between English and numerous Caribbean varieties predicts this type of altered prosodic rhythm. This study explores contact effects in the prosodic rhythm of South Florida African Americans and Haitian Americans by comparing their English rhythm to that of South Florida Cuban Americans and North Carolina African Americans. South Florida African American and Haitian American rhythms did not significantly differ from each other or from North Carolina African Americans for any of the four rhythm measures used: pairwise variability index of vowel segments (nPVI-V), ratio of the summed vowel durations to the duration of the entire phrase (%V), standard deviation of the consonantal segment durations (ΔC), and ΔC normalized for individual speaking rates (varcoC). Both the South Florida African American and Haitian American groups had significantly higher durational variability than that of the Cuban American group in three of the four measures. Within the Haitian American group, participants with higher Haitian Creole usage had significantly more durational variability than those with low Haitian Creole use, contrary to what bilingualism with Haitian Creole predicts. The results suggest prosodic rhythm variation is not necessarily due solely to transfer or substrate effects from other languages; rather, there may be social reasons for rhythm variation.
ISSN:15272133
00031283
DOI:10.1215/00031283-10867262