Explores the distribution of /ai/ monophthongization in African-American and European-American speakers in Memphis, Tennessee. Presents evidence of extensive glide weakening in the African-American community in Memphis and compares it to the degree and contexts of glide weakening in the European-American community. (Author/VWL)

Investigated African American Vernacular English dialect features in the midwestern community of Davenport, Iowa, and compared them to those reported by Pollock and Berni (1997) for Memphis, Tennessee--specifically productions of vocalic and postvocalic /r/ across African-American speakers from Davenport and Memphis. (Author/VWL)

This study of certain phonological and morphological aspects of the Negro speech of Memphis, Tennessee, is a revision of the author's 1961 Ph.D. thesis submitted to the University of Michigan. Twenty-four informants, all but one of whom were native Memphians, were used for the study; they were classed according to education and age. The interview…

The purpose of this study is to describe the speech of Negro high school students in Memphis, Tennessee. The study deals with the phonology and grammar of the students' speech. The phonological analysis is limited to a description of the segmental phonemes, their allophones, and their incidence. The grammatical analysis is limited to a description…