Rootedness and pre-lateral mergers in Oklahoma

Abstract

Oklahoma is in a dialectal transition zone, on the periphery of the South and Midland and blending into the West. Accordingly, it has a mix of linguistic and phonetic features. This study asked how phonetic features relate to community connection. Key terms include pre-lateral mergers: the merging of two (or more) vowels sounds when produced before the consonant /l/, and rootedness: a sense of place or belonging to one’s community. Participants of this study included 52 native Oklahoman English-speakers that had previously submitted recordings to be used in a study of pre-lateral mergers in Oklahoma. Results of the previous study were mixed in terms of vowel merger patterns, which led to the question of what social or demographic factors influence pre-lateral mergers in Oklahomans. This study used a follow-up survey of rootedness to identify a correlation between pre-lateral merger patterns and an individual’s rootedness. Results of this study showed participants from large cities to be less rooted than those from medium or small sized cities, and participants of the older age groups (40+) to be more rooted than younger participants. There were also correlations between vowel indexes, pre-lateral merging of /ʌ/ and /ʊ/ (identified from previous study), and rootedness scores among demographic groups; females had a positive correlation between rootedness and both vowel index scores, and males had a positive correlation for one index and a negative correlation for one index. Size of city in which a participant lived also produced trends, with people from small cities having a negative correlation between rootedness and merger patterns. Implications were also drawn in regard to age groups, as participants aged 40-59 had unique results in comparison to the other age groups. Future studies should attempt to clarify factors of rootedness and compare it to other phonetic factors.