Goin’ Home: The Role of Vowel Raising in Indexing an Ethnic Identity
Keywords:
style shifting, lifespan change, intraspeaker variation, sociophonetics, sociolinguistics, ethnicity, UK English
Abstract
Vowel height can be seen as a feature indexing a particular ethnic identity or indicating a style shift between two such identities. This paper focuses on Bradford-born South Asian musician Zayn Malik, an interesting subject given his prominent status as one of the most influential Asians in Britain today (Parveen 2016). I consider the role of vowel raising in the GOAT lexical set (Wells 1982) over the period of 2010 to 2016 and in style-shifting between casual, interview, and performative styles. The results of my study indicate significant differences in F1 and F2 values between particular years, and differences in F1 values between performative and interview speech. I explore these shifts in relation to the hostility Malik has faced and study the causes of his shifting, particularly in terms of speaker agency and audience design (Bell 1984).
References
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Benor, Sarah B. 2010. Ethnolinguistic repertoire: Shifting the analytic focus in language and ethnicity. Journal of Sociolinguistics 14(2):159–183. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9841.2010.00440.x
Boersma, Paul, and David Weenink. 2013. Praat: Doing phonetics by computer [Computer software, Version 5.3.56]. Accessed 12 October 2015, http://www.praat.org/
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Fought, Carmen. 2006. Language and Ethnicity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hughes, Arthur, and Peter Trudgill. 1996. English Accents and Dialects: An Introduction to Social and Regional Varieties of British English. London: Arnold.
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Hussain, Yasmin. 2005. Writing Diaspora: South Asian Women, Culture and Ethnicity. Abingdon-on-Thames: Routledge.
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Petyt, Keith M. 1985. Dialect and Accent in Industrial West Yorkshire. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
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Sharma, Devyani. 2011. Style repertoire and social change in British Asian English. Journal of Sociolinguistics 15(4):464–492. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9841.2011.00503.x
Sharma, Devyani. 2012. Stylistic activation in ethnolinguistic repertoires. University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics 18(2):126–136. http://repository.upenn.edu/pwpl/vol18/iss2/15
Sharma, Devyani, and Lavanya Sankaran. 2011. Cognitive and social forces in dialect shift: Gradual change in London Asian speech. Language Variation and Change 23(3):399–428. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954394511000159
Stuart-Smith, Jane, Claire Timmins, and Farhana Alam. 2011. Hybridity and ethnic accents: A sociophonetic analysis of ‘Glaswasian’. In Language Variation—European Perspectives 3: Selected papers from ICLaVE 5, ed. F. Gregerson, J.
Parrott, and P. Quist, 43–57. Copenhagen: John Benjamins.
Wagner, Suzanne E. 2012. Real-time evidence for age grad(ing) in late adolescence. Language Variation and Change 24(2): 179–202. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0954394512000099
Watt, Dominic, and Jennifer Tillotson. 2001. A spectrographic analysis of vowel fronting in Bradford English. English World-Wide 22(2):269–302. https://doi.org/10.1075/eww.22.2.05wat
Wells, John C. 1982. Accents of English: Volume 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wormald, Jessica. 2014. Bradford Panjabi-English: The realisation of FACE and GOAT. In Proceedings of the First Postgraduate and Academic Researchers in Linguistics at York (PARLAY 2013) Conference, ed. T. Lee, 118–138. Accessed 4 January 2017, http://www.york.ac.uk/language/ypl/PARLAY2013/PARLAY%20Proceedings.pdf
Wright, Joseph. 1892. A Grammar of the Dialect of Windhill. London: K. Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co. Yeung, Neil Z. 2015. Artists/Zayn Malik [Biography, Billboard]. Accessed 14 October 2016: http://www.billboard.com/artist/6530593/zayn-malik/biography
zaynft1direction. 2015. [Reblogged post, Tumblr]. Accessed 5 January 2017, https://web.archive.org/web/20170105175856/
http://zaynft1direction.tumblr.com/post/128816992915/zrankzocean-malikaofhearts-zayns-accent
Audacity Team. 2013. Audacity: A free multi-track audio editor and recorder [Computer software, Version 2.0.5]. Accessed 12 October 2015, http://audacity.sourceforge.net
azu xo. 2015. One Direction OTRA 24.02.2015 Osaka, Japan (Zayn speaking X,D) [YouTube video].
Accessed 25 November 2015, https://youtu.be/VVzTu-6ElxU BBC Radio 1. 2013. One Direction chat to Grimmy about erect hair, wombs and much more! [YouTube video]. Accessed 25 November 2015, https://youtu.be/A301QfBlAdk
BBC Voices. 2005. Conversation in Leeds about accent, dialect and attitudes to language [Audio file]. Accessed 3 December 2015, http://sounds.bl.uk/Accents-and-dialects/BBC-Voices/021M-C1190X0019XX-0501V0
Bell, Allan. 1984. Language style as audience design. Language in Society 13(2):145–204. https://doi.org/10.1017/s004740450001037x
Benor, Sarah B. 2010. Ethnolinguistic repertoire: Shifting the analytic focus in language and ethnicity. Journal of Sociolinguistics 14(2):159–183. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9841.2010.00440.x
Boersma, Paul, and David Weenink. 2013. Praat: Doing phonetics by computer [Computer software, Version 5.3.56]. Accessed 12 October 2015, http://www.praat.org/
“British Asian”. n.d. [Wikipedia entry]. Accessed 4 January 2017, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Asian
Catford, J. C. 1988. A Practical Introduction to Phonetics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Cooper, Duncan. 2015. Zayn Malik’s next direction [Article, The Fader].
Accessed 25 November 2015, http://www.thefader.com/2015/11/17/zayn-malik-fader-cover-story-interview-soloalbum-one-direction
“Demography of Bradford”. n.d. [Wikipedia entry]. Accessed 4 January 2017, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demography_of_Bradford#Ethnicity
Eckert, Penelope. 2012. Three waves of variation study: The emergence of meaning in the study of sociolinguistic variation. Annual Review of Anthropology, 41:87–100. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-anthro-092611-145828
Fought, Carmen. 2006. Language and Ethnicity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hughes, Arthur, and Peter Trudgill. 1996. English Accents and Dialects: An Introduction to Social and Regional Varieties of British English. London: Arnold.
Hughes, Arthur, Peter Trudgill, and Dominic Watt. 2012. English Accents & Dialects: An Introduction to Social and Regional Varieties of English in the British Isles. Abingdon-on-Thames: Routledge.
Hussain, Yasmin. 2005. Writing Diaspora: South Asian Women, Culture and Ethnicity. Abingdon-on-Thames: Routledge.
Ingalls, Matt. 2012. Soundflower 1.6.2. Cycling ‘74.
Labov, William. 1994. Principles of Linguistic Change. Oxford: Blackwell.
Orton, Harold, and Eugen Dieth (Eds.). 1963. Survey of English Dialects, Vol. 1: The Six Northern Counties and the Isle of Man. Leeds: E.J. Arnold.
Parveen, Nazia. 2016. Sadiq Khan tops 2016 list of most influential Asian people [Article, The Guardian]. Accessed 22 October 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/oct/20/sadiq-khan-london-labour-mayor-mostprominent-asian-britain-malala-hinduja-zayn-malik
Petyt, Keith M. 1985. Dialect and Accent in Industrial West Yorkshire. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Roisin, Fariha. 2015. Soft power: How pop star Zayn Malik is rebuilding the modern Muslim man in an age of Islamophobia [Article, Matter]. Accessed 8 December 2015, https://medium.com/matter/soft-power-eda0a2d45e4e#.5cvptdy9h
Schilling, Natalie. 2013. Investigating stylistic variation. In The Handbook of Language Variation and Change, ed. J. K. Chambers and Natalie Schilling, 325–349. New Jersey: Wiley-Blackwell.
Sharma, Devyani. 2011. Style repertoire and social change in British Asian English. Journal of Sociolinguistics 15(4):464–492. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9841.2011.00503.x
Sharma, Devyani. 2012. Stylistic activation in ethnolinguistic repertoires. University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics 18(2):126–136. http://repository.upenn.edu/pwpl/vol18/iss2/15
Sharma, Devyani, and Lavanya Sankaran. 2011. Cognitive and social forces in dialect shift: Gradual change in London Asian speech. Language Variation and Change 23(3):399–428. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954394511000159
Stuart-Smith, Jane, Claire Timmins, and Farhana Alam. 2011. Hybridity and ethnic accents: A sociophonetic analysis of ‘Glaswasian’. In Language Variation—European Perspectives 3: Selected papers from ICLaVE 5, ed. F. Gregerson, J.
Parrott, and P. Quist, 43–57. Copenhagen: John Benjamins.
Wagner, Suzanne E. 2012. Real-time evidence for age grad(ing) in late adolescence. Language Variation and Change 24(2): 179–202. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0954394512000099
Watt, Dominic, and Jennifer Tillotson. 2001. A spectrographic analysis of vowel fronting in Bradford English. English World-Wide 22(2):269–302. https://doi.org/10.1075/eww.22.2.05wat
Wells, John C. 1982. Accents of English: Volume 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wormald, Jessica. 2014. Bradford Panjabi-English: The realisation of FACE and GOAT. In Proceedings of the First Postgraduate and Academic Researchers in Linguistics at York (PARLAY 2013) Conference, ed. T. Lee, 118–138. Accessed 4 January 2017, http://www.york.ac.uk/language/ypl/PARLAY2013/PARLAY%20Proceedings.pdf
Wright, Joseph. 1892. A Grammar of the Dialect of Windhill. London: K. Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co. Yeung, Neil Z. 2015. Artists/Zayn Malik [Biography, Billboard]. Accessed 14 October 2016: http://www.billboard.com/artist/6530593/zayn-malik/biography
zaynft1direction. 2015. [Reblogged post, Tumblr]. Accessed 5 January 2017, https://web.archive.org/web/20170105175856/
http://zaynft1direction.tumblr.com/post/128816992915/zrankzocean-malikaofhearts-zayns-accent
Published
26-Mar-2017
How to Cite
Ingold, S. “Goin’ Home: The Role of Vowel Raising in Indexing an Ethnic Identity”. Lifespans and Styles, Vol. 3, no. 1, Mar. 2017, pp. 20-27, doi:10.2218/ls.v3i1.2017.1825.
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