A Reader in Sociophonetics

The Perception of Northern Cities Shifted Vowels by Local Speakers 245

In contrast, the best NCS vowel comprehension rate was .90 for the vowel
/ܭ/ (i.e., bed, when shifted into the area of /æ/; see 4b in Figure 10.1). The
respondents wrote down the word they heard, and items were judged correct
if the intended vowel was indicated, not the entire word (e.g., pet was judged
correct for bed).
To avoid age-related hearing loss and to make use of a large pool of
respondents, young listeners (ages 15–30 years of age) only are reported on
here. The ¿ ve groups studied were as follows:

1. USM = Southern urban Michiganders, European-American (N=70)


2. ASM = Southern urban Michiganders, European-American immi-
   grants from Appalachia (N=2)


3. RSM = Southern rural Michiganders, European-American (N=17)


4. MM=Mid-Michigan rural Michiganders, European-American (N=39)


5. AASM = Southern urban Michiganders, African-American (N=24)

Figure 10.3 A comparison of the Peterson and Barney 1952 means for female speak-
ers (base of arrow) and the tokens played in the current study (tip of
arrow) on a Bark scale.