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Detecting social patterns from shifting dialects

Photo of the Philadelphia skyline at night

Philadelphia, seen here at night, has moved to a more Northern-sounding dialect.

Credit: Thesab via Wikimedia Commons


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graphic representation showing multiple bars marking the vocal progression of a speaker

This spectrogram, one of the million measured by a program called the FAVE suite, illustrates a speaker born in 1888 vocally progressing from the word "make" toward "meek." The vertical bars show the beating of the vocal cords. The horizontal dark bars show the shaping effect of the tongue and the lips.

Credit: William Labov, University of Pennsylvania


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graphic representation of a speaker vocal progression from the word make to meek

This spectrogram, measured by a program called the FAVE suite, shows a speaker born in 1988 vocally progressing from the word "make" toward "meek." The vertical bars show the beating of the vocal cords. The horizontal dark bars show the shaping effect of the tongue and the lips.

Credit: William Labov, University of Pennsylvania


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map showing Philadelphia as the northernmost of the Southern cities

This map from the Atlas of North American English depicts Philadelphia as the northernmost of the Southern cities. The red and white barred line shows the southern pronunciation of "south" and "on" as well as "go."

Credit: William Labov, University of Pennsylvania


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