In the current study, we further examined these data to learn more about the linguistic factors that may have contributed to these results. Although our past research has shown that the dialects within these samples reflect varieties of Southern African American English (SAAE) and Southern White English (SWE), results from an earlier listener judgment study by Oetting and McDonald (2002) also indicated that some of the children sounded a little Cajun and/or Creole to some listeners. The samples were collected from children who lived in a rural area in southeastern Louisiana (for previous studies of these samples, see Oetting, Cantrell, & Horohov, 1999 Oetting & McDonald, 2001, 2002 Ross, Oetting, & Stapleton, 2004 Wynn, Eyles, & Oetting, 2000). An existing dataset of 93 child language samples provided us an opportunity to examine both of these issues. Moreover, missing from the literature is a well-developed framework and set of methods for studying speaker variation as a variable within a single dialect and/or multidialect investigation. Although Louisiana is well known for its linguistic diversity and Cajun/Creole French heritage, very few empirical studies have been completed on the dialects of this state.
The current study reflects a first attempt to study some of the language variation that is present in the nonmainstream English dialects of children who live in Louisiana. For the former, /a/ disfavored deletion whereas for the latter, /a/ had the same effect on deletion as other vowels. In addition, there were group differences in the linguistic conditioning of the deletion. Speakers under 25 years of age who had less contact with non-AAE speakers were more likely to delete /r/ than those who were older and had more contact. Within this study, rates of /r/-deletion were found to vary as a function of two variables, speaker age and speaker contact with non-AAE speakers.
One example of this latter type of influence can be found in Myhill’s (1988) study of AAE /r/-deletion.
In other cases, the variation can be tied to one or more variables that systematically influence the language of a subgroup. In some cases, this variation relates to individual differences between speakers (for more discussion of idiolects, see Mufwene, 2001). Language use varies across individuals even when these individuals are perceived to speak the same general dialect.
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