Race Identification in American English

Area of Science:

• Sociolinguistics
• Acoustic Phonetics
• Race and Speech Perception

Background:

• Race identification is influenced by linguistic cues.
• Southern American English dialects exhibit regional variations.
• Acoustic properties of speech can correlate with social identity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how self-identified race, dialect region, and acoustic speech features impact race categorization of Southern American English speakers.
• To determine if listeners can accurately identify the race of speakers from different regions of North Carolina.
• To explore the role of acoustic variables in listener race categorization.

Main Methods:

• Listeners from Southern (North Carolina) and Midland (Indiana) regions participated.
• Participants heard /hVd/ words produced by Black and White talkers from East and West North Carolina.
• Listener accuracy in categorizing speaker race was analyzed.

Main Results:

• Listeners accurately categorized speaker race above chance across all groups.
• West North Carolina Black talkers were categorized with the lowest accuracy, only slightly above chance.
• Accuracy differences suggest dialectal similarities influence race perception.

Conclusions:

• Speech production similarities between Black and White talkers in West North Carolina affect the racial categorization of Black speakers.
• Acoustic spectral features of speech are implicated in these categorization patterns.
• Findings highlight the complex interplay between dialect, acoustic properties, and race perception.