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(æ)fter the storm: An Examination of the short-a system in Greater New Orleans

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2020

Katie Carmichael
Katie Carmichael*
Affiliation:
Virginia Tech
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Abstract

This study examines the short-a system in Greater New Orleans (GNO) following the demographic changes and large-scale displacement that occurred after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. I provide a linguistic description of the short-a systems of 57 residents of the GNO suburb of Chalmette, half of whom relocated after the storm, and half of whom returned to their pre-Katrina homes. While many speakers demonstrate robust split systems, analysis demonstrates a shift over time toward the nasal system common throughout much of the US. Whether participants returned or relocated was not a significant predictor of short-a system; however, speakers most oriented to places outside of Chalmette may have led the change in progress, pointing to the importance of considering place orientation in contexts of speaker mobility. This study establishes that adoption of the nasal system is well underway in GNO, generating further questions about what New Orleans English will sound like as post-Katrina changes continue to develop.

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Type
Research Article
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Language Variation and Change , Volume 32 , Issue 1 , March 2020 , pp. 107 - 131
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press, 2020

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Footnotes

I am deeply grateful to the residents of Greater New Orleans who spoke to me as a part of this project. I also thank Kathryn Campbell-Kibler, Galey Modan, Cynthia Clopper, and Don Winford for comments on earlier versions of this analysis, Aaron Dinkin and Dan Villarreal for their helpful feedback on this work, my anonymous reviewers for their careful eyes, and Katie Garahan and Savannah Murray for their support as I worked through revisions.

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