Hall, R orcid.org/0000-0002-0888-8230 (2019) The mouths of others: The linguistic performance of race in Bermuda. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 23 (3). pp. 223-243. ISSN 1360-6441
Abstract
This paper examines the behaviour of one linguistic feature among one black and one white group of Bermudian men over the age of 50. The acoustic analysis of the MOUTH vowel, one of the most heavily stereotyped sounds of Bermudian English, is used as a window onto linguistic parody observed in the white group, a community of practice known locally for theatrical dialect performance. In combination with contextual analysis, and in light of social conditions in Bermuda, phonetic findings suggest that this linguistic practice is not only a performance of “Bermudian‐ness,” but also a performance of a racialized stereotype which reflects and reinforces the raciolinguistic hierarchies of contemporary Bermudian society. The paper introduces this under‐researched and unusual sociolinguistic setting to the literature on racialized mock language, as well as attesting further to the usefulness of methods that examine highly self‐conscious speech.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: | |
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2019 The Author. Journal of Sociolinguistics Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | Bermudian English; mock language; mouth vowel; performance speech; race; stereotypes |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures (Leeds) > School of English (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 21 Jan 2021 14:23 |
Last Modified: | 21 Jan 2021 14:23 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Identification Number: | 10.1111/josl.12345 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:170167 |