A drawl is a perceived feature of some varieties of spoken
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
and generally indicates slower, longer
vowel
A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (leng ...
sounds and
diphthongs
A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech o ...
. The drawl is often perceived as a method of speaking more slowly and may be erroneously attributed to laziness or fatigue. That particular speech pattern exists primarily in varieties of English and is most noticeable of which are
Southern American English
Southern American English or Southern U.S. English is a regional dialect or collection of dialects of American English spoken throughout the Southern United States, though concentrated increasingly in more rural areas, and spoken primarily by Wh ...
, Broad Australian English, and Broad New Zealand English. It is believed to have its origin in the 1590-1600s Dutch or Low German word "dralen" /ˈdraːlə(n)/, meaning "to linger."
The most commonly-recognized ''Southern Drawl'' features the
diphthongization
In historical linguistics, vowel breaking, vowel fracture, or diphthongization is the sound change of a monophthong into a diphthong or triphthong.
Types
Vowel breaking may be unconditioned or conditioned. It may be triggered by the presence of ...
or
triphthong
In phonetics, a triphthong (, ) (from Greek τρίφθογγος, "triphthongos", literally "with three sounds," or "with three tones") is a monosyllabic vowel combination involving a quick but smooth movement of the articulator from one vowel q ...
ization of the traditional short front vowels, as in the words ''pat'', ''pet'', and ''pit'', especially at the end of sentences. They develop a glide up from their original starting position to and, in some cases, back down to
schwa
In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa (, rarely or ; sometimes spelled shwa) is a vowel sound denoted by the IPA symbol , placed in the central position of the vowel chart. In English and some other languages, it rep ...
.
Southern drawl
The
Southern American English
Southern American English or Southern U.S. English is a regional dialect or collection of dialects of American English spoken throughout the Southern United States, though concentrated increasingly in more rural areas, and spoken primarily by Wh ...
drawl, or "Southern drawl," involves vowel
diphthongization
In historical linguistics, vowel breaking, vowel fracture, or diphthongization is the sound change of a monophthong into a diphthong or triphthong.
Types
Vowel breaking may be unconditioned or conditioned. It may be triggered by the presence of ...
of the front pure vowels, or the "prolongation of the most heavily stressed syllables, with the corresponding weakening of the less stressed ones, so that there is an illusion of slowness even though the tempo may be fast."
Characteristics
One characteristic of southern drawl is
vowel breaking
In historical linguistics, vowel breaking, vowel fracture, or diphthongization is the sound change of a monophthong into a diphthong or triphthong.
Types
Vowel breaking may be unconditioned or conditioned. It may be triggered by the presence of a ...
. A
monophthong
A monophthong ( ; , ) is a pure vowel sound, one whose articulation at both beginning and end is relatively fixed, and which does not glide up or down towards a new position of articulation. The monophthongs can be contrasted with diphthongs, wh ...
changes into a
diphthong
A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech o ...
or
triphthong
In phonetics, a triphthong (, ) (from Greek τρίφθογγος, "triphthongos", literally "with three sounds," or "with three tones") is a monosyllabic vowel combination involving a quick but smooth movement of the articulator from one vowel q ...
. The southern drawl has the short front vowels
and
become accompanied by an off-glide
also known as a
schwa
In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa (, rarely or ; sometimes spelled shwa) is a vowel sound denoted by the IPA symbol , placed in the central position of the vowel chart. In English and some other languages, it rep ...
, such as in the words ''pat''
æ(ə)t ''pet''
ɛ(ə)t and ''pit''
ɪ(ə)t
That is accompanied in
older Southern American English by a second very noticeable characteristic, known as the loss of postvocalic /r/, or r-dropping. Along with the elongation of the vowels, in words with /r/ immediately after a laxed vowel or appearing at the end of an utterance, the /r/ is dropped altogether and is usually replaced by a ''schwa'', or velar glide. That is the most easily recognizable form of drawl among English-speakers.
: sat
æt>
æi̯ət: set
ɛt>
ɛi̯ət: sit
ɪt>
ɪi̯ət
* Glide (schwa): pitch lowers, stretches in central vowels, and becomes lax
* Monophthongs, Diphthongs, and Triphthongs: singular, doublet, and triplet vowel sounds in an utterance: "Ha," "Heya," "Greetings!"
History
With their settlement of the Americas by immigrants from southern England and Scotland, where r-dropping dialects had become popularized by prestige and adopted by the majority of speakers, drawling speech already had some root in the English language. As agriculture became more relevant, Southern European settlers slowly migrated south towards the prime farmlands of tidewater zones along the southern coast. Scottish immigrants, meanwhile, moved west and then south, following the major waterways.
The already-popular r-dropping speaking patterns became more and more pronounced over time by the drawing out of vowels, which is familiar today. Meanwhile, as slavery took hold in the economy of southern plantations, more and more black people were introduced to the r-dropping drawl pattern of English through their captors.
Meanwhile, the Northern European drawl moved south from the midwest, bringing its own r-retaining speech patterns to the mix. Rather than dropping postvocalic /r/, the Northern speech emphasized it.
In the 1900s, well after the different speech patterns had established themselves to some degree in both the white and black populations of the Southern United States, the
Great Migration (African American)
The Great Migration, sometimes known as the Great Northward Migration or the Black Migration, was the movement of six million African Americans out of the rural Southern United States to the urban Northeast, Midwest, and West between 1910 an ...
drew large swathes of blacks and their mixed form of drawling speech to the areas along the
Sun Belt
The Sun Belt is a region of the United States generally considered to stretch across the Southeast and Southwest. Another rough definition of the region is the area south of the 36th parallel. Several climates can be found in the region — des ...
and west coast. That speech pattern had already become somewhat established as today's African American Vernacular English, and is by far the most common form of r-dropping southern speech.
Social perceptions
A drawl in Southern English is often associated with social stereotypes, both positive and negative. Studies have shown that American adults tend to attribute Southern English with friendliness and Northern English with intelligence. Many people consider Northern English a neutral, unmarked variety and do not even realize that it is an accent. The Southern drawl is associated with negative stereotypes with regard to intelligence and work ethic, with a drawl coming across as lazy or unintelligent. A study in 2011 by Rakic and others showed evidence that when people categorize others, a person's accent mattered more than apparent ethnicity.
In 2014, the
US Department of Energy
The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and manages the research and development of nuclear power and nuclear weapons in the United State ...
at the
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is a U.S. multiprogram science and technology national laboratory sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and administered, managed, and operated by UT–Battelle as a federally funded research and ...
in
Tennessee
Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...
offered a voluntary "Southern Accent Reduction" classes so that employees could be "remembered for what they said rather than their accents." The course offered accent neutralization through codeswitching. The class was canceled because of the resulting controversy and complaints from Southern employees, who were offended by the class since it stigmatized Southern accents. That event demonstrated that a bias exists against Southern American English, with Northern varieties being favored by some employers.
In a study of children's attitudes about accents, Tennessee children from 5 to 6 were indifferent about the qualities of persons with different accents, but children from Chicago were not. Chicago children from 5 to 6, who spoke Northern English, were much more likely to attach positive traits to Northern-speakers. The study's results suggest that social perceptions of Southern English are taught by parents to children and exist for no biological reason.
Broad Australian
Broad Australian likely emerged from
New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
, in southeastern
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
, in the early 1800s, when the population was significantly increasing by the importation of convicts. Many of the convicts came from Britain and Ireland, the origin of Broad Australian. However, the area was relatively isolated from outside influences which fostered the growth of a new dialect. In the late 1800s, people from New South Wales began to move to other parts of the continent because of increased overseas immigration, gold rushes, and other factors.
Vowel changes
/oʊ/ has a lowered first target and a lowered and fronted second target
/u/ is lowered
/i/ significant onglide - The degree of this onglide is affected by age and is less marked by younger speakers than older speakers
/ɜ/ is fronted
/aʊ/ has a fronted and raised first target
/eɪ/ has a retracted first target
/aɪ/ has a retracted and raised first target
/ɪə/ has a diminished offglide
/ɛə/ has a diminished offglide
The "cavalry drawl" was a phenomenon of English-speaking officers in England, which was noted around 1840. Officers in certain cavalry regiments considered to be fashionable would affect a drawling delivery in their speech.
Broad New Zealand
Broad New Zealand, much like Broad Australian, began taking hold in the late 1800s when people from the
British Isles
The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles, ...
brought their varieties of English to
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
. Its drawl in is caused by vowel shifts and diphthongization.
Sources
*
References
{{reflist
English phonology