Ethnic identity, language, and /o/ fronting among Latinos at UNC Chapel Hill

This study focuses on the variety of English used by college students at UNC Chapel Hill who self-identify as Latino and the relationship between the social and linguistic categories governing the speech of this particular group. The study will reveal, through conversations, interviews and questionnaires, certain details pertaining to the creation and expression of ethnic identity, which allows each speaker to orient themselves socially within the complex matrix of a college campus. The linguistic analysis of the study involves obtaining measurements of the F2 values of /o/ of Latino English speaking university students at UNC Chapel Hill at various grade levels and analyzing these measurement statistically in order to determine patterns that explain the connection between /o/ fronting and ethnic identity. ii...