This project investigates language variation in relation to social structure in two American Southern communities of migrant origin - Appalachians and African Americans. Ethnographic work has shown that since the migration period these groups have had extensive contact with each other and limited contact with other groups in Detroit. Results from pilot work suggest, intriguingly, that both groups are participating in recent Southern sound changes affecting vowel systems, but not at all in current changes pervasive in the urban North.
These changes have apparently developed since the mid sixties, thus raising interesting questions on the dynamics of language change with respect to both internal linguistic and external social factors. Importantly for sociolinguistic theory, this study sets out to link internal linguistic constraints on change with social motivations. Equally important is the provision of an accurate variationist account of Detroit African-American English; contrary to widespread assumptions, this variety appears to be distinct from Southern AAE. As well as contributing to socially accountable theories of phonetic and phonological change, results of the work will have applied value for participating speech communities.
