Purnell, T. C. (2009). Convergence and contact in Milwaukee: Evidence from select African American and white vowel space features. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 28(4), 408–427.
Presentation: Thomas
Summary: Angela
This study aimed to investigate whether English diphthongs spoken by African American speakers would show convergence/divergence to English diphthongs spoken by White American speakers. Therefore, the author studied conversations which involved different speakers. One type was African American speakers to African American speakers. Another was core African American speakers to white American speakers. Still another was periphery African American speakers to white American speakers. And the final type was white American speakers to white American speakers. The results revealed that when African American speakers spoke to white American speakers, they showed varied trends which were dependent on the vowel in question. However, there was a tendency for periphery African Americans to show more incidences of hyper convergence. On the other hand, core African Americans showed a trend to be either like the local norm, or that they tend to show hyper divergence.
