What Did Norman Labov Find In His 1966 New York Study?
What did he find out? Labov found a higher use of rhoticityrhoticityIn non-rhotic varieties, speakers no longer pronounce /r/ in postvocalic environments—that is, when it is immediately after a vowel and not followed by another vowel. ... The non-rhotic varieties include most of the dialects of modern England, Wales, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the Falkland Islands.https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Rhoticity_in_EnglishRhoticity in English - Wikipedia in all social classes when readi
What did he find out? Labov found that the pronunciation of certain vowel sounds were subtly changing from the standard American pronunciations and noted that locals had a tendency to pronounce these diphthongs with a more central point, more like [əu, əi].
William Labov – Martha's Vineyard - All About Linguistics
Labov's research demonstrates that linguistic variation is pervasive and highly structured, revealing regular patterns of co-occurrence between language forms, such as the pronunciation of a particular vowel, and social categories, such as socioeconomic classes.
William Labov - Linguistics - Oxford Bibliographies
What was the main finding of Labov's department store study on the R variable?
Labov's 1963 study of /r/ in New York City department stores had three principal findings: 1) social stratification: use of consonantal /r/ in coda position (r-1) was correlated with the status of the store, i.e. more (r-1) in Saks than Macys 2) an age distribution suggesting ongoing 'change from above' towards ...
Saks vs. Macys: (r-1) marches on in New York City department stores
In 1962, Labov ([1966] 2006) completed the “New York department store study,” which examined overt prestige involving class, ethnicity, and gender. He investigated the pronunciation of postvocalic /r/ in New York City speech, in the words fourth and floor.
in New York City: Labov's Department Store Study Revisited