Politics and dialect variation : A sociophonetic analysis of the Southern Vowel Shift in Middle TN

1. Introduction: This study examines the correlation between the Southern Vowel Shift in the Middle Tennessee area and different social characteristics, such as education level, age, and political views. To this end, field recordings were conducted, and the results were analyzed in terms of age, gender, occupation, education, political views, and other factors. The hypothesis is that people who associate themselves with traditionally Southern social characteristics and opinions will exhibit more effects of the Southern Vowel Shift in their speech. In particular, this study looks for correlations between certain political views and degree of Southern Vowel Shift. This is examined using voting results from the 2008 presidential election. The hypothesis is people who voted for McCain in the 2008 presidential election would be more likely to show effects of SVS than people who voted for Obama.