Rebecca L. Starr

INDEXING POLITICAL PERSUASION: VARIATION IN THE IRAQ VOWELS

to determine whether phonological variables are a potential resource for the expression of political identity, this article examines the second vowel of Iraq. in addition to being part of a politically significant place-name, Iraq is particularly wellsuited to index political identity due in part to the ideological association between the “foreign (a)” variable with correctness and educatedness in u.S. english (boberg 1997). Specifically, Iraq’s second vowel appears to index political conservatism when produced as /a/ and political liberalism when produced as /a:/. results from an analysis of the u.S. House of representatives show that republicans are significantly more likely than Democrats to use /a/, even controlling for regional accent. Political persuasion can be an important facet of identity (brewer 2001; Huddy 2001; Green, palmquist, and Schickler 2002). A large body of work in sociolinguistics has examined how linguistic variables may index aspects of identity such as ethnicity or gender, but to what extent can linguistic features be used to express one’s political identity? this question has not received much attention; we begin to address that here. in one of the few studies of linguistic variation and political identity, krivoruchko (2008) argues that variation in russian between the prepositions na and v (both variably corresponding to english on and in) has become “indexical of socio-cultural identities” in the context of ukraine’s independence from russia since 1991 (206). Specifically, the phrase na Ukraini for ‘in ukraine’ now connotes “traditional, purist and nationalist discourse” while the construction v Ukraini for ‘in ukraine’ connotes “bureaucratic newspeak, an anti-nationalist stance and ‘political correctness.’” the use of na carries a linguistically “conservative” meaning and, while not necessarily a politically conservative one, nonetheless indexes a speaker’s stance with respect to nationalist ideologies (204). krivoruchko’s study suggests that place-names like Ukraine are likely sites for the linguistic construction of political ideology. in this article, we address attitudes expressed in current American popular discourse about the politiamerican speech 85.1 (2010) 92 cal ideologies associated with particular pronunciations of the place-name Iraq. the two vowels in Iraq are both variable in their pronunciation, leading to at least four logically possible and attested variants for nativization in u.S. english: /aIrak/, /aIrA:k/, /Irak/, and /IrA:k/ (with two more possibilities including /irak/ and /irA:k/, depending on the salience of the /I/-/i/ difference, which is less often a topic of popular discussion).1 Although variation in the first vowel is a topic worth investigating in the future, variation in the second vowel is the focus of the present study. using a corpus of overtly political speech, we will show that the /A:/ variant is statistically associated with liberal political persuasion. the second vowel in Iraq is an example of the variable boberg (1997, 1999) labeled “foreign (a).” According to boberg (1999, 49), “when foreign words spelled with (e.g., llama, Mazda, pasta, spa, tobacco) are phonologically nativized in modern english, the foreign vowel [A] is variably realized as one of two english phonemes: short /a/ (as in fat) or long /a:/ (as in father).” boberg argues that this variation is due to attitudinal factors rather than phonological factors in American english, the latter determining pronunciation only in british english varieties. According to boberg, u.S. english speakers evaluate /a:/ to be “more correct, educated, and sophisticated than /a/ as a nativization of foreign (a)” (49), and boberg suggests that Americans ascribe a kind of general social prestige to the /a:/ variant because of “the stereotypical social attributes of speakers of dialects in which it does occur, most notably british received pronunciation and the speech of boston ‘brahmins’” (57). Janda, Joseph, and Jacobs’s (1994) discussion of hyperforeignisms also points out that Americans may associate /A/ rather than /a/ with foreign languages due to /A/’s presence in the vowel inventories of those foreign languages most frequently studied in the united States (Spanish, French, etc.). Consistent with the claim that the pronunciation of foreign (a) is related to attitudinal factors, Shapiro (1997, 437) also noted that although the /a/ variant is the “traditional” nativization for foreign place-names such as Iran, Iraq, and the italian city of Milan: “American speech in modern times seems to favor pronunciations that speakers likely construe as approximating the donor/original language’s sounds,” preferring and shifting to /A:/. weinreich (1968, 27) argued that “the speaker’s attitude toward the source language” may motivate this shift, hypothesizing that loanwords that originate in source languages with greater “cultural or social prestige” may be produced with increased attention to the source language phonology. Although weinreich’s argument was based on the prestige attributed to particular languages, this point can also be seen from the perspective of the individual speaker—a speaker’s level of attention to the source language phonology of a loanword may index that speaker’s desire to convey respect for that source language. Since the foreign (a) variable applies to multiple loanwords from multiple Indexing Political Persuasion: iraq Vowels 93 source languages, its use does not necessarily index that a given speaker holds esteem for a given language; rather, an Americans’ favoring of /A:/ over /a/ may index the more general quality of a person who holds foreign languages—and, by extension, speakers of foreign languages—in high esteem. Crucially, the political indexicality of the variable is not necessarily predicted to hold for domestic place-names, such as Milan, Michigan (pronounced /mail@n/). Discussion in the American popular press and in online discussion boards and blogs indicates that /IrA:k/ is indeed generally perceived as the “correct” and therefore more “respectful” or “empathetic” pronunciation of Iraq. in the following blog comment, the author associates the /A:/ variant (along with /i/ for the first vowel) with empathy, and the /a/ variant (along with /aI/ for the first vowel) with a violent, antiterrorist (or anti-iraqi) sentiment: i say ee-raq-ee when i’m talking about the helpless children there. i say eye-rackee when discussing the dead, or soon to be dead, shitheels. but that’s just me. [Velociman, http://keyissues.mu.nu/archives/051679.php, Nov. 3, 2004] the following comment on the same blog illustrates the connection between empathy and correctness: Having lived in the Middle east for six-plus years and been an ottoman and Middle eastern Studies graduate student to boot, i can assure you it is pronounced ear-roCk, not eye-rACk, ear-rACk, or any other way. Listen to Cheney [conservative u.S. vice president at the time] say it, with the emphasis on the rACk, and you know he is deliberately mispronouncing it just to be the prick we all know he is. [tim2, http://keyissues.mu.nu/archives/051679.php, Nov. 7, 2005] Here, tim2 argues that the “correct pronunciation” has /A:/ in the second syllable on grounds of its similarity to how it is pronounced in “the Middle east.” He explains Cheney’s emphatic “mispronunciation” as a conscious expression of a lack of empathy for the iraqi people. together, these two anonymous blog comments are indicative of a widespread discourse about the social meanings of the vowels in Iraq. both quite bluntly provide evidence for the ideology that loanword nativization indexes a lack of respect for foreign languages and their speakers. the two major political parties in America—Democratic and republican—differ with respect to attitudes (Green, palmquist, and Schickler 2002), ideological representations (Abramowitz and Saunders 2006), and social value systems (Conover and Feldman 1981; Farwell and weiner 2000). in addition, demographic differences suggest that members of these two parties may orient differently to foreign (a). in a study by the pew research Center comparing republican-dominant counties with Democratic-dominant counties (Doherty 2006), the proportion of foreign-born residents differs american speech 85.1 (2010) 94 significantly between counties according to the dominant political party. in the overall population of republican counties, 7% of the residents are foreign-born, versus 17% of the residents in Democratic counties. Living in an area with a higher proportion of foreign-born residents renders one more likely to encounter nonnative speech varieties. in addition to increased linguistic exposure, correlations have been found between open-mindedness and political positioning, including studies indicating that politically leftoriented people may be more open to new experiences (trapnell 1994; McCrae 1996; but see van Hiel, kossowska, and Mervielde 2000). research on the attitudes that self-identified liberals and conservatives hold toward one another has found that both groups adhere to the notion that liberals are more generous than judicious (Farwell and weiner 2000). these differences in both exposure and attitudes lead us to expect Democrats to favor the phonological variants closer to the foreign source vowels and republicans to favor the more nativized variants. with respect to Iraq, the prediction is that republicans will be significantly more likely to use the /a/ variant than Democrats, controlling for other factors.

Sweet voice: The role of voice quality in a Japanese feminine style

‘Sweet voice’, a distinctive Japanese vocal style, illustrates the role played by voice quality as a marker of authenticity in the construction of linguistic styles. The acoustic properties and sociopragmatic functions of sweet voice, as performed by professional voice actresses, are analyzed using data from anime programs, paraphernalia, and fan discourse. Sweet voice is shown to be connected to a traditional notion of Japanese femininity, and licenses the positive use of grammatical features of Japanese Womens Language. The mature, traditional image conveyed by sweet voice contrasts with the youthful cuteness of burikko and related vocal styles, illustrating that multiple notions of femininity operate within Japanese popular culture. The interplay of voice quality and grammatical features suggests that perceptions of conscious control at different levels of language play a crucial role in social meaning. (Voice quality, Japanese, language and gender, style, authenticity) *

The role of formal L2 learning experience in L3 acquisition among early bilinguals

ABSTRACT Early bilingualism is thought to facilitate language learning [Klein, E. C. (1995). Second versus third language acquisition: Is there a difference? Language Learning, 45(3), 419–466; Cromdal, J. (1999). Childhood bilingualism and metalinguistic skills: Analysis and control in young Swedish-English bilinguals. Applied Psycholinguistics, 20(1), 1–20]. The present study tests whether experience with formal study of an L2 conveys further advantages to early bilinguals, and whether typological similarity of previously-learnt languages to L3 plays a significant role in L3 learning. Two groups of participants, Early Bilinguals (EBLs) and Early Bilinguals with formal L2 experience (EBLs+L2), were tested on acquisition of Korean case markers in four argument structures: intransitive verbs, transitive verbs with both arguments, transitive verbs with one omitted argument, and descriptive verbs. EBLs+L2 significantly outperformed EBLs and the two groups showed further differences by sentence type, with EBLs showing more difficulty with novel structures while EBLs+L2 did not. To examine the role of typological proximity, EBLs+L2 were divided into those who had studied Japanese (EBLs+Jap), which is structurally similar to Korean, and those with experience studying other languages (EBLs+non-Jap). In spite of typological similarity, EBLs+Jap did not significantly outperform EBLs+non-Jap overall. These results support the conclusion that formal study of an L2 conveys advantages to early bilinguals in L3 learning. Such experience results in greater metalinguistic awareness, allowing students to efficiently acquire structures that differ from their existing linguistic repertoire.

Predicting NP forms in vernacular written Cantonese

Cantonese contains a range of NP forms which are ambiguous with respect to referentiality and definiteness (e.g., go yahn ‘a/the man’). Accessibility theory (Ariel 2001) predicts that entities which are salient in the discourse will be introduced using forms with more linguistic material, and referred back to using forms with less linguistic material. Previous studies of Standard Written Chinese have found that more topical entities are introduced using fuller NP forms (Sun 1988; Li 2000). A study of online love-advice narratives reveals that, in the case of new items, fuller NP forms in Vernacular Written Cantonese are more frequently used for more topical, referential, and plural entities. For given items, however, contrary to the predictions of accessibility theory, topical entities and those with a previous reference using a longer NP form are associated with fuller, rather than more abbreviated, NP forms. These findings suggest that the desire to highlight topical entities may override the principle of accessibility in choice of NP form for given items in certain genres.

Third culture kids in the outer circle: The development of sociolinguistic knowledge among local and expatriate children in Singapore

Children acquiring sociolinguistic knowledge in transnational migration settings must learn to evaluate multiple languages and dialects in a fluid, multifaceted social landscape. This study examines the sociolinguistic development of local and expatriate children in Singapore and investigates the extent to which they share sociolinguistic knowledge and norms. One hundred fourteen children ages five to nineteen completed a region identification task and an occupation judgment task, focusing on their perception of four regional English varieties: Australian English, Northern-China-accented English, Filipino English, and Singapore English. While all groups performed well on the region identification task, expatriate children outperformed locals within the youngest age group. Singaporean and expatriate children attending local schools showed greater familiarity with local norms than international school students in their occupation ratings. Participants mapped speakers to occupations by general prestige level, suggesting that children rely on indirect knowledge of social status rather than direct experience with speakers in their development of sociolinguistic evaluation. (Childrens sociolinguistic development, transnational migration, language attitudes) *