A Combined Perceptual and Acoustical Account of US Dialect Distance

Sammanfattning: This study examines the influence of attitudinal, perceptual, and acoustic factors on the categorization of US dialects by comparing acoustic-vocalic and perceived accent distances. The results of native and non-native listeners’ perceived distances between US regional accents are investigated in light of how acoustic-phonetic markers, attitudinal judgments, and identifiability may together impact how similar or different accents are perceived to be. Responses from 80 native and 40 non-native listeners provided perceived distance scores, attitudinal judgements, and categorization results for seven regional, and one non-regional, samples. A comparison of the regional distributions through hierarchical cluster analyses for vowel formant measurements and perceptual results, accompanied by an exploratory factor analysis, reveals a combination of several factors which result in groupings similar to those evident in perceptual distances: 1) markedness, 2) attitude, 3) associations with ‘standardness’, and 4) identifiability. These demonstrate the involvement of perceptions of and pre-existing associations with an identified accent when making a judgement of similarity/difference between varieties, which may furthermore override the initial acoustic information. Based on this investigation, judgements of relatedness between accents are furthermore shown to support previous qualitative models of dialect perception and comprehension.