PROSODIA OF US TERRITORIAL DIALECTS

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the study of intonation of regionally marked text. The focus of the research is the American version of English (AmA). Despite the large experimental phonetic material accumulated in the study of territorial differentiation of pronunciation in the United States, the intonation features of regional dialects remain insufficiently elucidated. Thus, the relevance of the study is due to the need for a comprehensive study of all intonation parameters that characterize the language of the territorial dialects’ speakers. The language situation in the United States is characterized by the presence of "diglossia" phenomenon. The term "diglossia" refers to the use in the same language group both a literary norm and its variants, dialects, as well as the interaction of dialects of the same language with each other in the individual’s language. The territory of the United States of America has a unique language situation, which makes it possible to study the regional variability of the AmA, and therefore it attracts the attention of many researchers. The acoustic experiment allowed the author to develop a classification of territorial dialects of the American version of English. This classification was based on the intonation criterion (differences in syntagmatic sentence structure, indicators of minimum, maximum and average data of FOT (frequency of the main tone), sound range and distribution of terminal tones). According to this criterion, the regional dialects of the American version of English are divided into five main types: Northern, Northeastern, Midwest, West, and Southern. As can be seen from the above-mentioned classification, the degree of variation, intonation parameters are higher on the axis North – South than on the axis West – East. This confirms David Crystal’s theory that the initial division of settlements in the South and Northeast also affects the state of modern US territorial dialects. Thus, we can conclude that the language of territorial dialects’ speakers is characterized by a greater variability at the segmental level compared to suprasegmental one. The most indicative intonation parameter was the frequency range, which narrows as it moves from South to North, and in the Western and Mid-Western dialects occupies an intermediate position.