title: Variation in Vowel Duration Among Southern African American English Speakers.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Atypical duration of speech segments can signal a speech disorder. In this study, we examined variation in vowel duration in African American English (AAE) relative to White American English (WAE) speakers living in the same dialect region in the South to characterize the nature of systematic variation between the 2 groups. The goal was to establish whether segmental durations in minority populations differ from the well-established patterns in mainstream populations.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants were 32 AAE and 32 WAE speakers differing in age who, in their childhood, attended either segregated (older speakers) or integrated (younger speakers) public schools. Speech materials consisted of 14 vowels produced in hVd-frame.
  
  
  RESULTS
  AAE vowels were significantly longer than WAE vowels. Vowel duration did not differ as a function of age. The temporal tense-lax contrast was minimized for AAE relative to WAE. Vowels produced by females were significantly longer than vowels produced by males for both AAE and WAE.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  African American speakers should be expected to produce longer vowels relative to White speakers in a common geographic area. These longer durations are not deviant but represent a typical feature of AAE. This finding has clinical importance in guiding assessments of speech disorders in AAE speakers.
authors.forename: Yolanda Feimster
authors.initials: YF
authors.lastname: Holt
authors.forename: Ewa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Jacewicz
authors.forename: Robert Allen
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Fox
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology*; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D006801:Humans; D008037:Linguistics; D008403:Mass Screening; D008875:Middle Aged; D009657:North Carolina; D010700:Phonetics; D063505:Racism; D012660:Semantics; D013018:Sound Spectrography; D013064:Speech Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000628:therapy; D013068:Speech Production Measurement / Q000379:methods*; D066229:Speech Sound Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000208:ethnology / Q000628:therapy; D013070:Speech Therapy / Q000379:methods; D044465:White People; D055815:Young Adult