| This dissertation examines the effects of language contact on speakers' vowels in a Mexican ethnic community in Chicago, Illinois. Through detailed acoustic-phonetic analysis, the vowels of the contact variety, Mexican Heritage English (MHE), are characterized. Accent perception ratings and a social practices survey are employed to determine the relationship between vowel production, accentedness, and the social orientation of the MHE speakers toward their community.;Speech recordings were elicited using wordlists, sentences, passages and interviews from four relevant speaker groups of female speakers: Mexican Spanish, second-language English (L2E), MHE, and the regional norm (Anglo). Eleven monophthongal vowels were analyzed instrumentally for first and second formant values and temporal properties. Groups are distinguished by their vocalic structure, with MHE clearly differentiated from both L2E and Anglo. Unlike L2E, MHE maintains the vowel inventory of Anglo speech, but differs predominantly in the dynamic properties of the vowels: duration of the subsystems of long and short vowels, the conditioned lengthening of vowels preceding voiced consonants, and vowel inherent spectral change of /ae/.;Listeners consistently detected a wide range of accentedness across MHE speakers, with a correlation found between accentedness and vocalic features---such as /u/ fronting and /ae/ raising---as well as temporal properties of the vowels. Comparisons to other Inland North regional studies indicate that intraregional variation exists, and that /ae/ is a pivotal vowel for regional comparisons. In addition, the analysis provides evidence for supraregional effects of Spanish/English contact based on durational subsystems.;A survey-based cultural analysis technique was adapted from anthropological research to determine community index scores for the MHE speakers. These scores indicate the extent to which the speakers reflect the practices and opinions of their community, and correlate with speaker age as well as vowel inherent spectral change in /ae/.;The analyses combine to present a comprehensive picture of the initiation and propagation of language change due to contact. As a variety of American English, MHE reveals a selective propagation of vocalic features both linguistic (internal) and social (external), traceable to Spanish language contact and speakers' cultural identities as Mexican-Americans in an ethnic community. |
