Patterns of the Mainstream Sound Change in a Liminal Region: Low Back Merger in Washington DC

2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 267-292 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sinae Lee
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Sound Change ◽  
European American ◽  
Washington Dc ◽  
Low Back ◽  
Back Vowel ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The City ◽  
Degree Of Overlap

This study investigates the low back vowel merger (lot-thought merger) of African American and European American speakers in Washington DC. The study aims to follow up with the previous investigation by Labov et al. (2006) on low back merger in DC, and investigate whether African American speakers in DC are participating in the merger, one of the majority-led sound changes. The study also examines the difference in low back vowel production between African Americans from a particular quadrant of the city, namely, Southeast (SE), and those from elsewhere in DC. Data are taken from forty sociolinguistic interviews with natives of DC. The vowels were analyzed acoustically, taking F1 and F2 measurements at three different points of a vowel. Both the F1 and the F2 dimensions of the low back vowels and the degree of overlap were examined. The degree of overlap was measured by calculating the Pillai score for each speaker, with duration and following environment taken into account. Results indicate that DC is conservatively participating in the merger, with European American speakers exhibiting higher degrees of overlap than African American speakers. An age effect is also observed, but only among African American speakers who are not from SE. The study further argues that the participation in the mainstream sound change by some African Americans can also be analyzed as convergence to the local white norm, and that this convergence is more likely to be carried out by African American speakers who are not from SE, a section of the city in which the contact between African American speakers and European American speakers is minimal.

Oppositional Identity and Back-Vowel Fronting in a Tri-ethnic Context

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Marie Bissell ◽  
Walt Wolfram
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African Americans ◽  
American Indians ◽  
European American ◽  
European Americans ◽  
Oppositional Identity ◽  
Robeson County ◽  
Back Vowel ◽  
Contact Situation ◽  
Lumbee Indians

This study considers the dynamic trajectory of the back-vowel fronting of the BOOT and BOAT vowels for 27 speakers in a unique, longstanding context of a substantive, tri-ethnic contact situation involving American Indians, European Americans, and African Americans over three disparate generations in Robeson County, North Carolina. The results indicate that the earlier status of Lumbee English fronting united them with the African American vowel system, particularly for the BOOT vowel, but that more recent generations have shifted towards alignment with European American speakers. Given the biracial Southeastern U.S. that historically identified Lumbee Indians as “free persons of color” and the persistent skepticism about the Lumbee Indians as merely a mixed group of European Americans and African Americans, the movement away from the African American pattern towards the European American pattern was interpreted as a case of oppositional identity in which Lumbee Indians disassociate themselves from African American vowel norms in subtle but socially meaningful ways.

scholarly journals Hematologic differences between African-Americans and whites: the roles of iron deficiency and α-thalassemia on hemoglobin levels and mean corpuscular volume

Blood ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 106 (2) ◽  
pp. 740-745 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernest Beutler ◽  
Carol West
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Blood Cell ◽  
Cell Count ◽  
White Blood Cell ◽  
Mean Corpuscular Volume ◽  
Corpuscular Volume ◽  
Blood Cell Count ◽  
Iron Deficient ◽  
The Difference

Abstract The average results of some laboratory measurements, including the hemoglobin, mean corpuscular volume (MCV), serum transferrin saturation (TS), serum ferritin, and white blood cell count of African-Americans differ from those of whites. Anonymized samples and laboratory data from 1491 African-American and 31 005 white subjects, approximately equally divided between men and women, were analyzed. The hematocrit, hemoglobin, MCV, TS, and white blood cell counts of African-Americans were lower than those of whites; serum ferritin levels were higher. When iron-deficient patients were eliminated from consideration the differences in hematocrit, hemoglobin, and MCV among women were slightly less. The -3.7-kilobase α-thalassemia deletion accounted for about one third of the difference in the hemoglobin levels of African-Americans and whites and neither sickle trait nor elevated creatinine levels had an effect. Among all subjects, 19.8% of African-American women would have been classified as “anemic” compared with 5.3% of whites. Among men, the figures were 17.7% and 7.6%. Without iron-deficient or thalassemic subjects, the difference had narrowed to 6.1% and 2.77% and to 4.29% and 3.6%, respectively. Physicians need to take into account that the same reference standards for hemoglobin, hematocrit, MCV, and TS and the white blood cell count do not apply to all ethnic groups. (Blood. 2005;106:740-745)

Age Differences in Knowledge about HIV Transmission among African-American Men and Women

2007 ◽  
Vol 101 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1133-1140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Kathleen Burlew
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African Americans ◽  
African American Women ◽  
Hiv Transmission ◽  
African American Men ◽  
Hiv And Aids ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Younger Women ◽  
Older African Americans ◽  
The Difference

To test whether knowledge about HIV transmission may be one contributing factor to the disproportionately high rates of HIV and AIDS cases among older African Americans, this study examined data from 448 African-American men and women, who completed the AIDS Knowledge and Awareness Scale. Overall the findings supported the hypothesis that older African Americans were not as knowledgeable as their younger counterparts. However, the analyses also indicated older (age 61+) African-American women were significantly less knowledgeable about HIV transmission than the younger women. However, the difference between older and younger men was not significant. One implication is that older African Americans, especially women, should be targets of educational efforts.

Talking Black in America

English Today ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-13
Author(s):  
Walt Wolfram ◽  
Kellynoel Waldorf
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Hip Hop ◽  
The United States ◽  
Language Diversity ◽  
Language Differences ◽  
African American Language ◽  
Global Status ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The 1960S

African American Language (AAL) is the most widely recognized – and controversial – ethnic variety of English in the world. In the United States national controversies about the speech of African Americans have erupted periodically for more than a half-century now, from the difference-deficit debates in the 1960s (Labov, 1972) to the Ebonics controversy in the 1990s (Rickford, 1999) and linguistic profiling in the 2000s (Baugh, 2003, 2018). Further, the adoption of performance genres from AAL into languages other than English, such as hip-hop and rap, has given the speech of African Americans even wider international recognition and global status (Omoniyi, 2006). The curiosities and controversies about African American speech symbolically reveal (1) the depth of people's beliefs and opinions about language differences; (2) the widespread level of public misinformation about language diversity; and (3) the need for informed knowledge about language variation in public life and in education.

Multi-racial Democracy and Black Democratic Vistas

2020 ◽  
pp. 146-174
Author(s):  
Kenneth M. Price
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Political Power ◽  
Washington Dc ◽  
Democratic Government ◽  
Racial Democracy ◽  
Political Organizing ◽  
The City

Democratic Vistas and Whitman’s later poetry and prose writings were shaped by his experiences in Washington, DC, a key site of experimentation with multi-racial democracy, and a city where local experiments had national implications. Washington was the nation’s first emancipated city and after the Civil War the combined forces of newly gained suffrage and effective political organizing led to a brief but remarkable surge in African American political power. Yet after promising initial gains, multi-racial democracy foundered, and ultimately democratic government itself was lost in the city when it became governed by appointed commissioners. Whitman’s mid-career achievements and failures can be illuminated against the backdrop of these local developments and the national scope of his work within the attorney general’s office.

The Influence of Gender and Ethnicity on Judgments of Culpability in a Domestic Violence Scenario

2004 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher J. Ferguson ◽  
Charles Negy
Keyword(s):  
Domestic Violence ◽  
African American ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Racial Bias ◽  
European American ◽  
Domestic Assault ◽  
European Americans ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Ethnicity And Gender

Using an experimental analog design, in this study we examined 503 European American, African American, and Latino undergraduate students’ responses to a domestic violence scenario in which the ethnicity and gender of the perpetrator were manipulated. Results indicated that participants perceived perpetration of domestic assault significantly more criminal when committed by a man than when committed by a woman. That finding was robust across European Americans, African Americans, and Latinos and was expressed by both genders. Also, European American participants expressed significantly more criticism toward African American perpetrators of assault than they did toward European American and Latino perpetrators of the exact offense, suggestive of racial bias consistent with stereotypes about African Americans being excessively aggressive. Finally, Latino participants expressed significantly more sympathy toward women who assault their husbands than toward assaulting husbands. Implications of the findings are discussed.

A Family Long Free

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sally McKee
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African Americans ◽  
North America ◽  
New Orleans ◽  
Emancipation Proclamation ◽  
History Of ◽  
High Level ◽  
Free African Americans ◽  
The City ◽  
And Training

This chapter argues that no family embodies the anomalous history of New Orleans better than the Dede family. Of all the towns and cities in North America with populations of free African Americans, the chapter goes on to argue, New Orleans was the city most likely to have produced a black man like Edmond Dede—possessed of enough talent, ambition, and training to launch himself up to a high level of accomplishment. Only in New Orleans could African American families trace their family's history back beyond 1864, the year the Emancipation Proclamation took effect. Contrary to later reports that Edmond Dede was the son of West Indian refugees, he in fact belonged instead to a long-established family with roots in North America.

scholarly journals Rebirth of a Nation: Frederick Douglass as Postwar Founder in Life and Times

2005 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
EDWARD TANG
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Frederick Douglass ◽  
Washington Dc ◽  
Vital Importance ◽  
The Past ◽  
Colored People ◽  
White Resistance ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Centennial Celebrations

In 1875, a year from the upcoming centennial celebrations, Frederick Douglass commemorated the African American presence in the nation's revolutionary past and Reconstruction present. “If … any man should ask me what colored people have to do with the Fourth of July, my answer is ready,” he proclaimed to a black audience in Washington, DC. “Colored people have had something to do with almost everything of vital importance in the life and progress of this great country” from its beginnings in 1776 to its greatest test in 1861 and beyond. Douglass drew upon the Revolution's legacies of liberty and democracy, urging his listeners to meet the challenge of incorporating themselves into the nation's citizenry despite sustained white resistance. Albeit a tall order, he placed this agenda in a broader perspective: “The fathers of this Republic … had their trial ninety-nine years ago. The colored citizens of this Republic are about to have their trial now.” The moment was full of possibilities: African Americans, he emphasized, faced comparable obstacles and hardships much like the founders themselves. Implied too within Douglass's invocation of the revolutionaries was the potential heroism and accomplishments of which African Americans were similarly capable, just as they had proven in the past.

Abstract P074: Racial Differences in the Association Between Hemoglobin A1c and Hypoglycemic Events

Circulation ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 137 (suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary E Lacy ◽  
Rachel A Whitmer ◽  
Mark J Pletcher
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Racial Differences ◽  
Statistical Power ◽  
Hemoglobin A1c ◽  
Severe Hypoglycemia ◽  
Mean Difference ◽  
Hypoglycemic Event ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Elevated Rate

Background: Rates of severe hypoglycemia are higher in African Americans than in whites. We hypothesize that the elevated rate of hypoglycemic events observed in African Americans is a result of treating African Americans and whites to the same target hemoglobin A1c (hbA1c) despite established racial differences in the association between hbA1c and glucose measures. Methods: Using de-identified patient clinical data from 2011- 2017 on 22,554 self-identified African American or white patients with type 2 diabetes from UCSF Health, we examined racial differences in the association between hbA1c and hypoglycemic events. Results: Of the 22,554 patients (17% African American; 54% male; mean age 59.6), 275 experienced a hypoglycemic event requiring medical care; 2.20% of African Americans experienced a hypoglycemic event compared to 1.02% of whites (p<0.001). Of the 275 patients experiencing a hypoglycemic event, 102 had a last recorded hbA1c value within 90 days prior to the event. The mean hbA1c value preceding a hypoglycemic event was 7.50% for African Americans compared to 6.91% in whites (mean difference= 0.59%, 95% confidence interval: -0.38%, 1.56%, p=0.24). In models adjusted for age, sex, and duration of diabetes, the difference in hbA1c was slightly attenuated (mean difference= 0.56%, 95%CI: -0.41%, 1.52%, p=0.26). Conclusion: In this population, African Americans were significantly more likely to experience a hypoglycemic event than whites. HbA1c values preceding the event were slightly higher in African Americans than whites; this finding was not statistically significant but statistical power was potentially limited by sample size.

Discourse on Southeast’s bad reputation: Positioning of African Americans in Washington, D.C.

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 420-435 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sinae Lee
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Positioning Theory ◽  
Key Aspects ◽  
The City

This study examines the interview discourse of five African American speakers in Washington, D.C., particularly paying attention to their discussions on issues surrounding a marginalized section of the city, namely, Southeast. The study provides discourse-based evidence of Southeast’s marginalization, which is reflected in the widely circulating discourse on Southeast’s reputation. Drawing on Positioning Theory, the study shows how Southeast speakers and non-Southeast speakers exhibit different positioning in assessing the reputation. The study illuminates how different positioning characterizes some of the key aspects of a marginalized neighborhood, concomitantly reflecting how different groups in the city construct and evaluate their own identities and others.

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