@article{lobel_thomas_mielke_riwarung_2023, title={Acoustic correlates of aspirated consonants in Maranao}, volume={153}, ISSN={["1520-8524"]}, DOI={10.1121/10.0018916}, abstractNote={Aspirated obstruents are rare in Austronesian languages, one exception being the southern Philippine language Maranao, as reported by Lobel and Riwarung [Oceanic Linguist. 48, 403–438 (2009)]. In Maranao, aspirated consonants occur as a reflex of a cluster of a former voiced stop and a homorganic obstruent (*bp > p’, *dt > t’, *ds > s’, *gk> k ’). The most obvious correlate to non-Maranao speakers is a dramatic raising of the following vowel, which also occurs after voiced obstruents, but not after historic single voiceless obstruents—e.g., /təkaw/ [təkaw] ‘startled’ (earlier *təkaw) vs. /tək’aw/ [təkʰɣw] ‘thief’ (earlier *təɡkaw) However, native Maranao speakers regard the raising as a property of the consonants, not the vowels. We examined the correlates of the apparent aspiration. The vowel raising is realized robustly and consistently, with some overlap in F1/F2 space among contrastive vowels. However, aspirated and unaspirated stops also show differences in VOT and in measures of breathiness of the following vowel, albeit with somewhat less consistency. Differences between /s/ and /s’/ were not evident except for realizations of following vowels. We explore the role of pharyngeal expansion due to voicing in the development of these Maranao segmental realizations.}, number={3}, journal={JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA}, author={Lobel, Jason W. and Thomas, Erik R. and Mielke, Jeff and Riwarung, Labi H.}, year={2023}, month={Mar} }
 @article{terry_thomas_jackson_hirotani_2022, title={African American English speaking 2nd graders, verbal-s, and educational achievement: Event related potential and math study findings}, volume={17}, ISSN={["1932-6203"]}, DOI={10.1371/journal.pone.0273926}, abstractNote={A number of influential linguistic analyses hold that African American English (AAE) has no verbal–s, the–sthat, for example, turnsdrinkintodrinksin more mainstream English varieties.On such accounts, sentences likeMary drinks coffeeare ungrammatical in AAE. Previous behavioral studies suggest that in addition to being ungrammatical, AAE speaking children find these sentences cognitively demanding, and that their presence in mathematical reasoning tests can depress scores. Until now, however, no online sentence processing study nor investigation of neurophysiological markers has been done to support these findings. Aimed at addressing this gap in the literature, the auditory ERP experiment described herein revealed two different processes associated with AAE speaking 2nd graders listening to this type of sentence: a morphosyntactic structure building problem, reflected in a bilateral early anterior-central negativity; and an increase in working memory load, indicated by a bilateral late long-lasting anterior-central negativity. Study participants also took an orally administered test of math word problems. Consistent with previous findings, results showed they answered fewer questions correctly when those questions contained verbal–sthan when they did not.}, number={10}, journal={PLOS ONE}, author={Terry, J. Michael and Thomas, Erik R. and Jackson, Sandra C. and Hirotani, Masako}, year={2022}, month={Oct} }
 @article{lobel_blust_thomas_2021, title={Three Puzzles for Phonological Theory in Philippine Minority Languages}, volume={60}, ISSN={["1527-9421"]}, DOI={10.1353/ol.2021.0014}, abstractNote={Abstract:This squib describes three theoretically challenging phonological processes found in the Manide, Inagta Alabat, and Umiray Dumaget languages spoken on the large northern Philippine island of Luzon. These three well-documented processes do not conform to current theoretical expectations about what is a likely or even a possible diachronic process, although each is part of a larger, complex context of sound change which does conform to theoretical expectation. A brief background survey of vocalic changes triggered by voiced stops is given, followed by the puzzling changes that depart from this more general pattern.}, number={2}, journal={OCEANIC LINGUISTICS}, author={Lobel, Jason W. and Blust, Robert and Thomas, Erik}, year={2021}, month={Dec}, pages={474–484} }
 @article{thomas_2020, title={Labov: A guide for the perplexed}, volume={96}, ISSN={["1535-0665"]}, DOI={10.1353/lan.2020.0047}, abstractNote={Reviewed by: Labov: A guide for the perplexed by Matthew J. Gordon Erik R. Thomas Labov: A guide for the perplexed. By Matthew J. Gordon. (Guides for the perplexed.) London: Bloomsbury, 2013. Pp. xii, 252. ISBN 9781441192509. $24.95. William Labov has held a prominent position in linguistics, and in particular a preeminent position in variationist sociolinguistics, since he burst onto the academic scene just over fifty years ago. His remarkable research productivity has resulted in a steady stream of articles, books, and research reports over that period. This continuing dominance of a field that he, in large part, created makes it remarkable that no book-length overview of his work and impact had appeared until Matthew Gordon compiled this engaging and thorough guide. The book is organized into nine chapters: two chapters that provide background, six chapters covering various aspects of Labov’s research, and a concluding chapter on directions in which variationist sociolinguistics is now moving. Ch. 1 (1–20) provides a rather spare biography of Labov, followed by discussion of how sociolinguistics rejects Noam Chomsky’s circumscription of linguistics to an idealization, how sociolinguistics developed, and then how the variationist (Labovian) approach materialized. G leads the reader from William Dwight Whitney through other scholars who placed importance on linguistic variation and the social functions of language to the [End Page 723] emergence of the sociology of language and anthropological linguistics. The culmination was the 1964 conference on sociolinguistics at Lake Arrowhead, California, at which Labov gained a forum together with such other figures as Dell Hymes, Charles Ferguson, and John Gumperz. This conference provided Labov with the publicity he needed to launch his rise to prominence. Ch. 2 (21–44) delves into how pre-Labovian movements treated variation in language. Leonard Bloomfield’s definition of the ‘speech community’ is mentioned, and then instructions by both Bloomfield and Zellig Harris on how to exclude variation from linguistic consideration are discussed. There is a good deal of attention to the one pre-sociolinguistic field that focused on language variation—dialect geography—and of the sclerosis that had beset dialectology by the time Labov appeared on the scene. The chapter examines only American movements, both in mainstream linguistics and in dialectology. Some mention, for example, of J. R. Firth and his London School, which attempted to incorporate social uses of language (Ferdinand de Saussure’s parole) into linguistic theory, might have been included. In Ch. 3 (45–75), G brings readers to Labov’s own work. The discussion revolves around Labov’s two earliest studies, of Martha’s Vineyard and the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and the methodological innovations that he introduced. Labov realized that the methods of dialect geography were inadequate for studying language in its social context. The enterprise was ripe for a new approach, and he was the right person at the right time. In Martha’s Vineyard, he introduced the use of a large sample and of open-ended interviews. Dialectologists had tentatively adopted some audio recording, but Labov embraced it wholeheartedly. His use of ‘apparent time’, in which different generations are compared, demonstrated that linguistic change could indeed be observed. In the Lower East Side study, he introduced the use of random sampling, examination of stylistic variation, and special tasks to elicit attitudes about linguistic variables. Finally, G notes that Labov invented the ‘rapid and anonymous survey’ in his survey of the S. Klein, Macy’s, and Saks Fifth Avenue department stores. These techniques allowed Labov to demolish the notion of ‘free variation’, that is, that variation is random and unconstrained. Ch. 4 (77–102) examines the theories behind Labov’s early work. Labov rejected the ‘axiom of categoricity’, that language had to be abstracted away from actual use to an idealized grammar, which was held by Bloomfield, Harris, and Chomsky. He stressed ‘orderly heterogeneity’, the idea that all linguistic variation follows rules and forms patterns. As G notes, this phrase came from Weinreich, Labov, & Herzog 1968. Labov and Herzog note in their preface to that article that Weinreich wrote the section that discussed the phrase, although G seems to downplay Weinreich’s primacy in the concept. Labov developed a new definition...}, number={3}, journal={LANGUAGE}, author={Thomas, Erik R.}, year={2020}, month={Sep}, pages={723–726} }
 @article{thomas_2020, title={Sociophonetic trends in studies of Southern US English}, volume={147}, ISSN={["1520-8524"]}, DOI={10.1121/10.0000544}, abstractNote={Although the U.S. South was usually avoided for phonetic studies in earlier years, phonetic analyses of Southern U.S. English have expanded in numerous directions in recent years. Studies of vocalic variation have dominated the enterprise, with a broad range of studies that have examined the phonetic peculiarities and distribution of variants within the region, the characteristics of particular communities, and the phonetic attributes of African American and Latino groups. However, other phonetic phenomena are finally seeing more study. Several consonantal variables have attracted acoustic analysis. Other studies have focused on intonation and certain timing-related phenomena. Numerous experimental studies have tested the abilities of listeners to identify dialects and a few other perceptual issues. These developments are outlined here, including advancements in segmental, prosodic, and perceptual analyses.}, number={1}, journal={JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA}, author={Thomas, Erik R.}, year={2020}, month={Jan}, pages={529–540} }
 @book{thomas_2019, place={United Kingdom}, title={Mexican American English: substrate influence and the birth of an ethnolect}, ISBN={9781316162316 9781107098565 9781107491151}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/9781316162316}, DOI={10.1017/9781316162316}, abstractNote={Book summary page views Book summary page views help Close Book summary page views help Book summary views reflect the number of visits to the book and chapter landing pages. Total views: 0 * Loading metrics...}, publisher={Cambridge University Press}, year={2019} }
 @article{thomas_2017, title={Analysis of the ex-slave recordings}, journal={Listening to the past: audio records of accents of english}, author={Thomas, E. R.}, year={2017}, pages={350–374} }
 @article{mielke_carignan_thomas_2017, title={The articulatory dynamics of pre-velar and pre-nasal /ae/-raising in English: An ultrasound study}, volume={142}, ISSN={["1520-8524"]}, url={http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-85027285520&partnerID=MN8TOARS}, DOI={10.1121/1.4991348}, abstractNote={Most dialects of North American English exhibit /æ/-raising in some phonological contexts. Both the conditioning environments and the temporal dynamics of the raising vary from region to region. To explore the articulatory basis of /æ/-raising across North American English dialects, acoustic and articulatory data were collected from a regionally diverse group of 24 English speakers from the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. A method for examining the temporal dynamics of speech directly from ultrasound video using EigenTongues decomposition [Hueber, Aversano, Chollet, Denby, Dreyfus, Oussar, Roussel, and Stone (2007). in IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (Cascadilla, Honolulu, HI)] was applied to extract principal components of filtered images and linear regression to relate articulatory variation to its acoustic consequences. This technique was used to investigate the tongue movements involved in /æ/ production, in order to compare the tongue gestures involved in the various /æ/-raising patterns, and to relate them to their apparent phonetic motivations (nasalization, voicing, and tongue position).}, number={1}, journal={JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA}, author={Mielke, Jeff and Carignan, Christopher and Thomas, Erik R.}, year={2017}, month={Jul}, pages={332–349} }
 @article{thomas_2016, title={Sociophonetics of Consonantal Variation}, volume={2}, ISSN={["2333-9691"]}, DOI={10.1146/annurev-linguistics-011415-040534}, abstractNote={Although consonantal variation has traditionally been studied using auditory coding, techniques now exist for measuring any kind of consonants acoustically and/or articulatorily. These methods have already been employed extensively for studying variation in many languages. Techniques and past studies using them are reviewed for rhotics, laterals, fricatives, stops, weakening and strengthening processes, and voicing. These methods are becoming well established in sociolinguistic inquiry. One of the greatest remaining challenges is to design studies that combine these methods with current sociological approaches to human interactions.}, journal={ANNUAL REVIEW OF LINGUISTICS, VOL 2}, author={Thomas, Erik R.}, year={2016}, pages={95–113} }
 @article{thomas_2016, title={The Atlas of North American English and its impacts on approaches to dialect geography}, volume={20}, ISSN={["1467-9841"]}, DOI={10.1111/josl.12193}, abstractNote={The Atlas of North American English (ANAE) is a survey of vocalic variation in North American English and the culmination of Labov's years of work on vowel shifting. It covers the entire continent and employs modern acoustic analysis to reveal shifting patterns. As such, it represents a significant step forward for dialectology. Importantly, its focus is more current than historical. It has some weaknesses, such as poor coverage of minorities and diphthongization and an outdated notation. However, its perspective will drive future approaches to geographical variation and vowel shifting. Sound changes, both for English and for other languages, must now be viewed as components of integrated systems. Geographical surveys should henceforth take the extent of these systems into account.}, number={4}, journal={JOURNAL OF SOCIOLINGUISTICS}, author={Thomas, Erik R.}, year={2016}, month={Sep}, pages={489–497} }
 @misc{thomas_2011, title={Sociolinguistic variables and cognition}, volume={2}, ISSN={["1939-5086"]}, DOI={10.1002/wcs.152}, abstractNote={Abstract}, number={6}, journal={WILEY INTERDISCIPLINARY REVIEWS-COGNITIVE SCIENCE}, author={Thomas, Erik R.}, year={2011}, pages={701–716} }
 @article{thomas_2010, title={A LONGITUDINAL ANALYSIS OF THE DURABILITY OF THE NORTHERN-MIDLAND DIALECT BOUNDARY IN OHIO}, volume={85}, ISSN={["1527-2133"]}, DOI={10.1215/00031283-2010-022}, abstractNote={The boundary between the North and Midland dialects in Ohio represents an unusually clear opportunity to test how well dialect boundaries can persist. For part of this boundary, the original settlement by European Americans was strongly segregated: the area north of the line was heavily dominated by settlers from a hearth running from western New England through upstate New York, while the area south of it was dominated by settlers from a hearth comprising southern Pennsylvania, western Maryland, and northern Virginia and West Virginia. Recordings of Dictionary of American Regional English survey subjects, born 1880–1908, were compared with subjects, born 1970–94, from a new survey. A number of variables involving vowel quality or vowel mergers that are known or suspected to differentiate the North and Midland were analyzed in these subjects' speech. Eight variables showed statistically significant differences according to dialect region. When these variables were combined quantitatively, the patterns that emerged are that the North and Midland remain robustly differentiated but that a transition zone has developed along the boundary.}, number={4}, journal={AMERICAN SPEECH}, author={Thomas, Erik R.}, year={2010}, pages={375–430} }
 @article{thomas_yaeger-dror_2010, title={African American English speakers and their participation in local sound changes: A comparative study introduction}, journal={American Speech}, author={Thomas, E. R. and Yaeger-Dror, M.}, year={2010}, pages={1–20} }
 @article{thomas_2007, title={Phonological and Phonetic Characteristics of African American Vernacular English}, volume={1}, ISSN={["1749-818X"]}, DOI={10.1111/j.1749-818x.2007.00029.x}, abstractNote={Abstract}, number={5}, journal={LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS COMPASS}, author={Thomas, Erik R.}, year={2007}, month={Sep} }
 @article{thomas_carter_2006, title={Prosodic rhythm and African American English}, volume={27}, DOI={10.1075/eww.27.3.06tho}, abstractNote={Prosodic rhythm was measured for a sample of 20 African American and 20 European American speakers from North Carolina using the metric devised by Low, Grabe and Nolan (2000), which involves comparisons of the durations of vowels in adjacent syllables. In order to gain historical perspective, the same technique was applied to the ex-slave recordings described in Bailey, Maynor and Cukor-Avila (1991) and to recordings of five Southern European Americans born before the Civil War. In addition, Jamaicans, Hispanics of Mexican origin who spoke English as their L2, and Hispanics speaking Spanish served as control groups. Results showed that the North Carolina African Americans and European Americans were both quite stress-timed overall, with no significant difference between them. Spanish emerged as solidly syllable-timed, while Jamaican English and Hispanic English were intermediate. The ex-slaves were significantly less stress-timed than either younger African Americans or European Americans born before the Civil War. This finding suggests that African American English was once similar to Jamaican English in prosodic rhythm.}, number={3}, journal={English World-Wide}, author={Thomas, E. R. and Carter, P. M.}, year={2006}, pages={331–355} }
 @article{thomas_reaser_2004, title={Delimiting perceptual cues used for the ethnic labeling of African American and European American voices}, volume={8}, ISSN={["1360-6441"]}, DOI={10.1111/j.1467-9841.2004.00251.x}, abstractNote={A review of speech identification studies examining the abilities of listeners to distinguish African American and European American voices shows that Americans can recognize many African American voices with a high degree of accuracy even in the absence of stereotypical morphosyntactic and lexical features. Experiments to determine what cues listeners use to distinguish ethnicity have not yielded such consistent results, perhaps suggesting that listeners may access a wide variety of cues if necessary. An experiment involving African Americans with features of a European American vernacular demonstrated that African Americans with atypical features are difficult for listeners to identify. Analysis suggested that vowel quality and intonation could have misled respondents but did not rule out timing and voice quality as factors in identification.}, number={1}, journal={JOURNAL OF SOCIOLINGUISTICS}, author={Thomas, ER and Reaser, J}, year={2004}, month={Feb}, pages={54–87} }
 @article{thomas_2003, title={Secrets revealed by Southern vowel shifting}, volume={78}, ISSN={["1527-2133"]}, DOI={10.1215/00031283-78-2-150}, abstractNote={�� Discussions of the vowel variants of Southern English have been extensive and have continued without interruption for over a hundred years. McMillan and Montgomery (1989) list several hundred works on the phonology of Southern English, a large portion of which cover vocalic variation. Dozens of works have appeared since McMillan and Montgomery’s bibliography was published. No other region of the United States has attracted this level of interest in its vowels, either from scholars or in the popular press. With such sustained attention, one would expect that research on this variety had reached a point of diminishing returns. In fact, however, it has not. Southern English remains a trove of yet undiscovered dialectal configurations, for vowels as well as for other variables. A clearer understanding of these variants can aid in sociolinguistic descriptions, but in some cases it can also provide insights into the processes of sound change, phonological structure, and even speech perception. The several variables examined here demonstrate how Southern vowels can illuminate each of these latter domains.}, number={2}, journal={AMERICAN SPEECH}, author={Thomas, ER}, year={2003}, pages={150–170} }
 @inbook{thomas_2002, title={A Brief history of Johnstown, Ohio}, booktitle={Mary E. Babcock Foundation (Comp.), A pictorial history of Johnstown, Ohio}, publisher={Columbus, OH: Spahr & Glenn}, author={Thomas, E.}, year={2002}, pages={5–6} }
 @inbook{thomas_2002, title={Instrumental phonetics}, DOI={10.1002/9780470756591.ch7}, abstractNote={This chapter contains sections titled: Instrumental Phonetic Studies in Sociolinguistics Instrumental Studies of Variation in Production Instrumental Studies of Variation in Perception Toward Sociophonetics}, booktitle={The handbook of language variation and change}, publisher={Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishers}, author={Thomas, E. R.}, editor={J. K. Chambers, P. Trudgill and Schilling-Estes, N.Editors}, year={2002}, pages={168–200} }
 @misc{thomas_2002, title={Sociophonetic applications of speech perception experiments}, volume={77}, ISSN={["1527-2133"]}, DOI={10.1215/00031283-77-2-115}, abstractNote={�Although studies of perception are still largely assigned to the realms of experimental phonetics or psychology, sociolinguists have been recognizing the importance of perception. Several lines of experimental inquiry have emerged. Nevertheless, perception has been studied far less by sociolinguists than has speech production. One reason is that speech perception is daunting at first. Examining it requires careful attention to experimental design, a considerable amount of preparation, and, in many cases, use of a speech synthesizer. Even so, research on perception can be highly productive. This paper attempts to review the sorts of experiments that have been conducted in the past and to provide guidelines for sociolinguists interested in studying perception, with suggestions for future work. Although perception has been a neglected stepsister of production in sociolinguistics, it, like Cinderella, may have its day soon. Two important factors could—and should—move perception to the forefront of sociophonetic research. One is simply the huge potential for sociolinguistic perception studies because the area has been neglected for so long. The other reason is a more practical one: although perception experiments require extreme attention to detail in the preparation phase, data analysis is generally less time-consuming than in production studies, and this difference may make it more attractive to researchers. The aversion of much of sociolinguistics to perception has been, to some extent, more apparent than real. Many sociolinguistic studies over the past generation, especially instrumental studies, have succeeded in divorcing speech production from speech perception. However, perception issues may play a hidden role in studies that ostensibly address production. The reason is that variationists have not always carefully distinguished production from perception. This tendency is an artifact of the reliance of sociolinguistics on impressionistic transcription. The impressionistic tradition, based on the development of the International Phonetic Alphabet and of the Cardinal Vowel system of Daniel Jones, dominated dialect}, number={2}, journal={AMERICAN SPEECH}, author={Thomas, ER}, year={2002}, pages={115–147} }
 @book{thomas_wolfram_2002, title={The development of African American English}, ISBN={0631230866}, publisher={Oxford, UK; Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers}, author={Thomas, E. R. and Wolfram, W.}, year={2002} }
 @article{thomas_2001, title={American pronunciation}, volume={76}, ISSN={["0003-1283"]}, DOI={10.1215/00031283-76-2-198}, number={2}, journal={AMERICAN SPEECH}, author={Thomas, ER}, year={2001}, pages={198–204} }
 @book{thomas_2001, title={An acoustic analysis of vowel variation in New World English}, ISBN={0822364948}, publisher={Durham, NC: Published by Duke University Press for the American Dialect Society}, author={Thomas, E. R.}, year={2001} }
 @article{thomas_2000, title={Applying phonetic methods to language variation}, volume={75}, ISSN={["0003-1283"]}, DOI={10.1215/00031283-75-4-368}, abstractNote={Research Article| November 01 2000 APPLYING PHONETIC METHODS TO LANGUAGE VARIATION ERIK R. THOMAS ERIK R. THOMAS Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google American Speech (2000) 75 (4): 368–370. https://doi.org/10.1215/00031283-75-4-368 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Twitter Permissions Search Site Citation ERIK R. THOMAS; APPLYING PHONETIC METHODS TO LANGUAGE VARIATION. American Speech 1 November 2000; 75 (4): 368–370. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/00031283-75-4-368 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search Books & JournalsAll JournalsAmerican Dialect SocietyAmerican Speech Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. American Dialect Society2000 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.}, number={4}, journal={AMERICAN SPEECH}, author={Thomas, ER}, year={2000}, pages={368–370} }
 @book{thomas_2000, title={Reevaluating and refining peripherality}, number={2000}, journal={ERIC Document Reproduction Service Report ED452711, 2000}, author={Thomas, E. R.}, year={2000} }
 @article{thomas_2000, title={Spectral differences in vertical bar ai vertical bar offsets conditioned by voicing of the following consonant}, volume={28}, ISSN={["0095-4470"]}, DOI={10.1006/jpho.2000.0103}, abstractNote={Abstract Two experiments were designed to investigate the observation that offsets of pre-/t/ /ai/ (e.g., tight) show lower F1and higher F2than those of pre-/d/ /ai/ (e.g. tide) in some dialects. The first experiment examined production of /ai/ in minimal pairs like tide... tight by non-Hispanic whites from two central Ohio communities and Mexican Americans from southern Texas. Results confirmed that the spectral difference occurs in the speech of the central Ohioans. Although it was anticipated that the south Texas subjects would not exhibit the spectral difference, they did produce it, but to a lesser degree than the central Ohioans. The second experiment examined perception of stimuli as tight, tide, or tie by non-Hispanic whites from central Ohio and Mexican Americans from southern Texas to investigate whether the observed patterns in production are reflected in perception. It was confirmed that speakers of the two dialects under study can access the offset spectral difference as a perceptual cue. Moreover, it was found that speakers of the two dialects differ in perception of the spectral difference. The cross-dialectal discrepancies show that the spectral difference is part of a speaker's grammar, even though it is not contrastive.}, number={1}, journal={JOURNAL OF PHONETICS}, author={Thomas, ER}, year={2000}, month={Jan}, pages={1–25} }
 @article{wolfram_thomas_green_2000, title={The regional context of earlier African American speech: Evidence for reconstructing the development of AAVE}, volume={29}, ISSN={["1469-8013"]}, DOI={10.1017/S0047404500003018}, abstractNote={Despite extensive research over the past four decades, 
a number of issues concerning the historical and current 
development of African American Vernacular English (AAVE) 
remain unresolved. This study utilizes a unique sociolinguistic 
situation – a long-standing, isolated, biracial community 
situated in a distinctive dialect region of coastal North 
Carolina – to address questions of localized dialect 
accommodation and ethnolinguistic distinctiveness in earlier 
African American English. A comparison of diagnostic phonological 
and morphosyntactic variables for a sample of four different 
generations of African Americans and a baseline European 
American group shows that considerable accommodation of 
the localized dialect occurred in earlier African American 
speech. Nonetheless, certain dialect features – e.g., 
copula absence and 3rd person verbal s marking 
– were distinctively maintained by African Americans 
in the face of localized dialect accommodation; and this 
suggests long-term ethnolinguistic distinctiveness. Cross-generational 
change among African Americans indicates that younger speakers 
are moving away from the localized Pamlico Sound dialect 
toward a more generalized AAVE norm. Contact-based and 
identity-based explanations are offered for the current 
trend of localized dialect displacement.}, number={3}, journal={LANGUAGE IN SOCIETY}, author={Wolfram, W and Thomas, ER and Green, EW}, year={2000}, month={Sep}, pages={315–355} }
 @article{thomas_bailey_1998, title={Parallels between vowel subsystems of African American vernacular English and Caribbean Anglophone creoles}, volume={13}, ISSN={["1569-9870"]}, DOI={10.1075/jpcl.13.2.03tho}, abstractNote={In testing the creole hypothesis that features of African American Vernacular English (AAVE) derive from a creole-like ancestor instead of from British dialects, researchers have largely ignored vowel variation, even though language shift often affects phonology more than other aspects of language. Acoustic analysis of recordings of former slaves, of Southem Whites from the same birth cohort, and of speakers of Caribbean creoles, coupled with data from a dialect atlas, suggests that non-English influences have affected AAVE. Older AAVE shows a much higher incidence of monophthongal /e/ and /o/ and of non-front /au/ than Southem White English, and it shares these features with Caribbean creoles. These features may ultimately be derived from African languages.}, number={2}, journal={JOURNAL OF PIDGIN AND CREOLE LANGUAGES}, author={Thomas, ER and Bailey, G}, year={1998}, pages={267–296} }
 @inbook{thomas_bailey_1998, title={Some aspects of African-American vernacular English phonology}, booktitle={African American English}, publisher={London: Routledge}, author={Thomas, E. and Bailey, G.}, editor={S. S. Mufwene, J. Rickford and J. Baugh and Bailey, G.Editors}, year={1998}, pages={85–109} }
 @article{thomas_1997, title={A rural/metropolitan split in the speech of Texas Anglos}, volume={9}, DOI={10.1017/s0954394500001940}, abstractNote={ABSTRACT}, number={1997}, journal={Language Variation and Change}, author={Thomas, E.}, year={1997}, pages={309–332} }