Labov's Martha Vineyard Study

Question 1

What is Martha’s Vineyard?

Answer 1

An island off the coast of America

Question 2

Which 2 phonetic variables did Labov study here?

Answer 2

The ‘ay’ phoneme (as in like aye) and the ‘aw’ phoneme (as in like awe)

Question 3

Where were the regional forms found the most on the island?

Answer 3

In the locals

Question 4

What was expected of the upper class people’s pronunciations in Martha’s Vineyard? Why?

Answer 4

They would have used standard American pronunciations as they were tourists

Question 5

Why did Martha’s Vineyard residents who werent tourists keep regional pronunciations?

Answer 5

To differentiate themselves from tourists and to show solidarity with where they lived

Question 6

What correlation was found with Martha’s Vineyard residents with the pronunciations they used?

Answer 6

Residents who had more positive views of the island used the regional ‘ay’ and ‘aw’ pronunciations more

Question 7

Give a statistic supporting the view that people who supported the island used more regional pronunciations

Answer 7

Almost 40 people aged 61-75 used the regional ‘ay’ and ‘aw’ pronunciation