What is it about?
In a study of high school students in Southwest Kansas, vowel sounds, a major component of regional accent, show patterns similar to other majority-Latinx communities even among some Anglo students. Still, sound changes common throughout the US and Canada are also underway in this community.
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Why is it important?
Studies of multicultural communities can show how youth influence language change; yet, such studies often focus on urban settings. Rural communities in the US have long histories of multilingualism that have influenced regional variation. It is important to study language contact and change in multiple settings and among diverse groups to avoid essentialization when describing regional and ethnic variation
Perspectives
"It's nice to see research being done on a place you grew up in. When sharing the research with people from the area, there's always a sense of excitement to see that other people find value on what makes us unique in the area." Trevin Garcia
Mary Kohn
Kansas State University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: A new majority, English World-Wide A Journal of Varieties of English, March 2023, John Benjamins,
DOI: 10.1075/eww.22035.koh.
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