Chicago Dialect Project

This page provides updates on an ongoing project studying the Chicago Dialect's development since the late 1800s through to the present-day.

It is conducted by the University of Illinois at Chicago and Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania. This page will present information and updates related to the 5 Generations of Language Change in Chicago, IL Research Project. This Project is managed by David Durian, PhD, Department of English, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, and Richard Cameron, PhD, Department of Linguistics, University

of Illinois at Chicago. By 5 Generations, we mean here that we will be analyzing and investigating vowel variation and language change trends in the actual, real-world speech of 5 generations of Chicagoans born 1875 and later (to roughly 1990, or so). This will be done via the analysis of audio recordings of Chicagoans born during this time window and recorded for a variety of linguistics projects since 1960. These recordings include interviews conducted by linguists Lee Pederson, Roger Shuy, John Willis, Edward Callary, and Robin Herndobler, as well as recordings made by various interviewers for DARE (Dictionary of Regional English). In addition, both Richard Cameron and David Durian are including interviews recorded for their own studies of Chicago, conducted since 1997, in addition to analyzing the work of these others. In doing so, Durian and Cameron hope to analyze the speech of more than 100 Chicagoans and trace the inception and development of the Northern Cities Shift [NCS] in Chicago in real and apparent time. The NCS is an important series of rotations to the vowel system involving 5-6 vowel classes in modern English. These include the BAT, BET, BOT, BOUGHT, and BUT vowel classes, as well as, in some accounts, BIT (Labov, 1994; Eckert, 2000). In addition, Durian and Cameron will investigate such important questions as:

- When did the NCS first "start" in Chicago (and the Inland North more generally)?

- What is the true chronology of the order of the changes making up the NCS during the later half of the 19th and the early part of the 20th Century?

- What is the relationship of the development of the earliest stages of the NCS in Chicago to earlier patterns of vowel variation recently revealed in new instrumental re-studies of US English outside the Inland North among speakers born in the late 1800s and early 1900s (e.g., Thomas, 2006; Durian, 2012; Johnson & Durian, 2014)?

- Is the NCS beginning to show signs of "dissolving" in the Chicagoland area among younger speakers (b. 1975 and later) today? In later research, Durian and Cameron also hope to do some comparative analysis of the vowel systems of African American speakers and European American speakers born throughout much of this time period. This work will present the first detailed comparison of vowel systems among speakers of these groups since Pederson's (1965) study "The Pronunciation of English in Metropolitan Chicago," as well as the first detailed comparative instrumental analysis of vowel system differences and similarities among the speaker groups.

10/26/2021

David Durian appeared tonight on Chicago Tonight, a local PBS show in Chicago. He talked about the results of a recent survey on Americans' perceptions of "incorrect" speech conducted by the company Preply, and why perceptions of speech of this type are problematic. You can see his appearance on the show via the link below. It is set to start at the beginning of that segment.

Chicago Tonight is Live 10-25-2021

03/04/2021

Proud to announce that a paper from our project has been published in the Proceedings from the Chicago Linguistic Society 55!

03/25/2020

https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/sites/covid-19/home.html…

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Chicago Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) information Updates

Sociolinguistics Lunch: David Durian (Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania)

03/14/2019

Tomorrow at 2pm--David Durian will present results from our ongoing study of the Chicago Dialect Survey for an invited talk for the CUNY Sociolinguistics Symposium Lunch Series in New York City!

Sociolinguistics Lunch: David Durian (Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania) David Durian (Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania) presents: A New Perspective on the Development of the Northern Cities Shift in Chicago

02/27/2019

Coming in 2 weeks time, David Durian will present results from our ongoing study of the Chicago Dialect Survey for an invited talk for the CUNY Sociolinguistics Symposium Lunch Series in New York City. March 15th, 2019. Abstract below.

From Paulina To Throop: The Origin Story Of Chicago’s Accent, Pronunciations

01/06/2019

Back at the end of November, 2018, David Durian appeared on NPR's The Morning Shift, talking about Chicago street name pronunciations. Here's a link to the audio of that appearance. Enjoy!

From Paulina To Throop: The Origin Story Of Chicago’s Accent, Pronunciations As much as we may not notice it, in Chicago we have some interesting and unique ways of pronouncing streets. Think Devon, Paulina, Throop and Desplaines. Our pals over at WBEZ’s Curious City say that, over the years, lots of listeners have asked why Chicagoans pronounce street names and other thin...

11/29/2018

Here's a link to the audio of David Durian's appearance on WBEZ this morning, talking about our research on the Chicago Dialect

11/28/2018

David Durian--one our Research Team--will be on WBEZ tomorrow morning to talk about his work (with Richard Cameron) on the Chicago accent.

Durian will be on during "The Morning Shift" at around 9:37 am (Central time) talking with Monica Eng about street name pronunciations and other aspects of the accent

WBEZ can be listened to "live" at http://www.wbez.org

Tune in if you are able!

WBEZ 91.5 WBEZ 91.5fm is Chicago's news, talk and information oriented public radio station and only NPR Affiliate.

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