Corpus studies of regional variation using raw language data from the internet focus predominantly on lexical variables in writing. However, online repositories such as YouTube offer the possibility of investigating regional differences using phonological variables, as well. This paper demonstrates the viability of constructing a naturalistic speech corpus for sociophonetic research by analyzing hundreds of recitations of Abraham Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address.” We first replicate a known result of phonetic research, namely that English vowels are longer in duration before voiced obstruents than before voiceless ones. We then compare /æ/-tensing in recitations from the Inland North and New York City dialect regions. Results indicate that there are significant regional differences in the formant trajectory of the vowel, even in identical phonetic environments (e.g., before nasal codas). This calls into question the uniformity of “/æ/-tensing” as a cross-dialectal phenomenon in American English. We contend that the analysis of spoken data from social media can and should supplement traditional methods in dialectology and variationist analysis to generate new hypotheses about socially conditioned speech patterns.

中文翻译：

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葛底斯堡语料库：测试所有时态 /æ/s 都是平等的命题

使用来自互联网的原始语言数据对区域变异的语料库研究主要集中在写作中的词汇变量上。但是，YouTube 等在线存储库也提供了使用语音变量调查区域差异的可能性。本文通过分析亚伯拉罕·林肯 (Abraham Lincoln) 的“葛底斯堡演说”的数百个背诵，展示了为社会语音研究构建自然主义语音语料库的可行性。我们首先复制了语音研究的一个已知结果，即英语元音在浊塞音之前的持续时间比清音之前更长。然后，我们比较内陆北部和纽约市方言地区朗诵中的 /æ/-tensing。结果表明，元音的共振峰轨迹存在显着的区域差异，即使在相同的语音环境中（例如，在鼻尾音之前）。这让人质疑“/æ/-tensing”作为美式英语中跨方言现象的一致性。我们认为，对来自社交媒体的语音数据的分析可以而且应该补充方言学和变异分析中的传统方法，以产生关于社会条件语音模式的新假设。