MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

Middle Atlantic Speech: Evidence from Phonology

Milford A. Jeremiah Downee Ocean Hon The statement above is a current advertisement aired on the local television stations in the Baltimore metropolitan region. The aim of the ad is to promote tourist trade to the beach resort of Ocean City, Maryland. It should read Down the Ocean Honey. The ad seems to capture, to some degree, one element of the speech pattern of certain speakers, primarily European Americans, who live in the Mid-Atlantic section of the country. The salient linguistic feature is the use of the centralized diphthong /əu/. It should also be noted that African Americans, primarily those of the lower-socioeconomic status, in this area of the country can be identified by specific phonological variables. For example, many use the mid front vowel / ε/ where persons in in other parts of the region would use the phoneme / æ /. Thus, the word bag is pronounced beg. On a related topic, hosts of radio talk programs heard in the area are able to identify callers, sometimes in jest, in these parts of the country by certain phonological features, primarily the presence or absence of diphthongs. In short, the phonological features above reveal elements of language identity and regional variation. Furthermore, such inquiry is similar to Labov’s early work on language and social stratification (1964; 1972). This study uses data from casual speech styles of European and of African Americans to identify specific phonological features that define this region and these groups of speakers.