Linguistic profiling
Encyclopedia
Linguistic profiling is the practice of identifying the social characteristics of an individual based on auditory cues, in particular dialect
and accent
. The theory was first developed by Professor John Baugh to explain discriminatory
practices in the housing market based on the auditory redlining
of prospective clientele by housing administrators. Linguistic profiling extends to issues of legal proceedings
, employment
opportunities, and education
. The theory is frequently described as the auditory equivalent of racial profiling
. The bulk of the research and evidence in support of the theory pertain to racial and ethnic
distinctions, though its applicability holds within racial or ethnic groups, perceived gender
and sexual orientation
, and in distinguishing location of geographic origin.
Baugh's theory is distinct from linguistic profiling as defined by Hans van Halteren from the University of Nijmegen
in the Netherlands
. Van Halteren's theory deals with the categorization of linguistic features
for the purposes of author identification and verification from a text, not necessarily specifically addressing the socially defined categories within which they are included.
s associated with dialect and/or accent. Further negative practices are associated with education and general treatment of individuals speaking stigmatized
dialects. A more positive view of the practice is found in Baugh's description of expressions of ethnic pride. Though average people have been shown to be well equipped in measuring social characteristics by means of speech, the failings of those unfamiliar with a speech community
and the capability of manipulation of speech should be taken into account when determining the unbiased
use of linguistic profiling.
. Baugh found a discrepancy between the proclaimed availability of an apartment in a phone interview, in which he utilized Standard American English
, and its apparent unavailability upon a face-to-face meeting with the landlord. The changed conception of the housing administrator between auditory and visual cues pointed to overt discrimination
based on race.
Baugh, Purnell, and Idsardi completed a set of four experiments based on the identification of dialects in American English
. The resulting findings were as follows:
The first experiment involved a series of telephone surveys in which a single speaker requested housing in the chosen dialects of Chicano English
, African American Vernacular English
, and Standard American English. Each landlord selected was subject to three requests in these three dialects, and the correlating negative and positive responses to call-back appointments were shown to favor speakers of Standard American English. Their findings for the percent of call-backs for the two cities of Palo Alto and Woodside, which currently have African American and Hispanic Americans
populations less than 5%, were as follows:
Of the four geographical locations chosen in the study, those with the lowest populations of African Americans and Hispanic Americans were shown to have the greatest bias towards the non-standard dialects.
In order to determine the ability of people to distinguish dialect, a separate experiment was conducted. Fifty undergraduate students, all Caucasian
speakers of Standard American English, were asked to identify the ethnicity behind a recording of the word "hello" spoken in either Chicano English, African American Vernacular English, and Standard American English.
Respondents were able to identify the correct dialect more than 70% of the time.
Chicano English was found to be more easily identifiable than African American Vernacular English.
An intra-racial distinction was researched by Newman and Wu, who conducted a study in which subjects were asked to identify various speakers based on race; the speakers included Latinos, African Americans, Chinese American
s, Korean American
s, and white speakers. Listeners tended to successfully categorize speakers as Latino, African American, white or Asian
; often, they could not discern between Chinese American and Korean American English speakers, although phonetic
differences exist.
It has been found that Korean American and Chinese American English speakers tend to have a longer voice onset time
(VOT), or the length of time between a stop consonant and voicing
, than other speakers of Standard American English. Furthermore, Korean American speakers tend to have a longer VOT than Chinese American speakers. This distinction is apparent when considering the VOT of the phonemes [ph], [kh] and [th].
Another distinction between Korean American and Chinese American English speakers can be found in the timing of spoken syllables, or rhythm
. Chinese American speakers (in particular, males), tended to speak with a more regular timing of syllable
s than Korean American speakers.
male
and female speakers
, and gay
male and bisexual
or lesbian
female speakers. He found that listeners tended to classify male and female speakers by masculinity
and femininity
, respectively; male speakers were perceived as gay if they sounded less masculine, while female speakers were identified as bisexual or lesbian if they sounded less feminine.
Female speakers perceived as bisexual or lesbian exhibited opposite characteristics. Furthermore, speakers who are identified as bisexual or lesbian are not necessarily perceived as masculine.
Male speakers perceived as gay, tended to exhibit opposite characteristics.
In addition, male speakers who were perceived as gay exhibited greater breathiness and hyperarticulation of stressed syllables than male speakers who were perceived as heterosexual. It is important to note that speakers who are identified as gay are not necessarily perceived as feminine.
, the South
, or the West
, but had greater difficulty discerning geographic origin when a larger number of dialects were provided: New England
, North
, North Midland
, South Midland
, South
, West
, New York City, or Army Brat. Listeners were only able to identify speakers correctly 30% of the time. They also found evidence suggesting that residential history of the listener affected speaker categorization, and that listeners tended to use a small set of phonetic cues to make these distinctions.
residents and non-Utah residents were asked to discern the degree of residency of a sample of speakers. Perhaps unsurprisingly, they found that Utah residents and western non-Utah residents tended to correctly identify speakers as being from Utah; the difficulty of other non-Utah residents in identifying Utah speakers was attributed to lack of expertise. However, the western non-Utah residents tended to use more stereotypical phonetic cues to identify speakers than Utah residents. Such findings point to the importance of experience when correctly identifying dialect or region of origin.
Speakers of Utah English tend to utilize more mergers
than speakers of Western American English; this is to say that speakers of Utah English will pronounce certain phonemes, that are distinct in Western American English, the same way. Some examples include fail-fell, pool-pull, card-cord, pin-pen and heel-hill. Such mergers are used more by older speakers.
. A witness testified against Simpson based on his memory of hearing a “male Black” voice. The objection of Simpson’s lawyer, Mr. Cochran, was overruled by the presiding judge.
rather than a Puerto Rican
accent. The New York Superior Court
ruled that distinguishing between accents was permissible based on the fact that “human experience has taught us to discern the variation in the mode of speech of certain individuals.” The court found that a certain degree of familiarity with the accents and dialects of a region or ethnic group qualified an individual to identify ethnicity or race in a court based on auditory evidence
.
based on his evaluation of race from spoken language. The presiding Judge cited the findings of Sanchez v. People in justifying the officer's claim of identifying the suspect based on overheard speech. A similar case is that of Clifford v. Commonwealth, where a testimony of linguistic profiling was allowed based on the caveat that "the witness is personally familiar with the general characteristics, accents, or speech patterns of the race or nationality in question, i.e. so long as the opinion is 'rationally based on the perception of the witness'".
.
. Listeners could correctly perceive race, but not level of education. Furthermore, there was a correlation between the perceived race of the speaker and the speaker’s total earnings: African American workers who could be identified as black in the study based upon speech earned 12% less than African American workers who were not identified as black; those African American workers that could not be identified by phonetic cues earned as much white workers.
area viewed a response with the race and gender of the student speaker. Students were grouped based on white or minority
and male or female. Teachers of various racial and ethnic backgrounds tended to view responses attributed to white females as being most favorable, followed by white boys, then minority girls. Students who were perceived as minority boys were ranked least favorably. Particularly noteworthy is the fact that Black and Hispanic teachers tended to rank responses given by minority boys, minority girls, and white boys, significantly lower than other teachers. While indicative of on overall stigmatization of boys, the study also provides evidence that the negative associations with minority students (who are identified through linguistic profiling) are held by members of all racial groups.
university students would comprehend material more poorly if they heard a non-accented lecture presented with a picture of an Asian female. When the same non-accented lecture was presented with a European American
teaching assistant, students had a greater ability to comprehend the material. This suggests that face identification may be enough to make students believe that language performance will be accented, which corresponded with a belief that comprehension would be reduced.
found that discrepancies existed not only between white speakers of Standard American English and black speakers of African American Vernacular English, but in addition in between females and males and speakers of Black Accented English and African American Vernacular English when applying for housing. African Americans as a whole were also more likely to be told about the problems of creditworthiness when applying for a lease
. An explanation offered by the researcher suggests the linkage between low socio-economic backgrounds
and African American Vernacular English, while Black Accented English was associated with higher middle class status. Speech closer to the standard form yielded greater acceptance.
The many instances of discrimination suits have failed to form a major precedent
relating to this issue. Examples of individual cases include Alexander v. Riga involving the refusal of calls to African American applicants in addition to United States v. Lorantffy Care Center in which African American's were denied admittance to nursing home
s.
The Fair Housing Act
makes explicit the unlawfulness of discrimination against any member of a protected class, including religion
, age, disability
, gender
, and race. Refusal of housing based on the profiling of linguistic traits is clearly illegal, yet evidence must be found that the housing authority in question could indeed effectively determine the race or ethnicity of the applicant. In this way linguistic studies on the ability of lay persons to correctly identify race or ethnic groups based on auditory cues proves helpful to anti-discrimination law.
Dialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
and accent
Accent (linguistics)
In linguistics, an accent is a manner of pronunciation peculiar to a particular individual, location, or nation.An accent may identify the locality in which its speakers reside , the socio-economic status of its speakers, their ethnicity, their caste or social class, their first language In...
. The theory was first developed by Professor John Baugh to explain discriminatory
Discrimination
Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. It involves the actual behaviors towards groups such as excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group. The term began to be...
practices in the housing market based on the auditory redlining
Redlining
Redlining is the practice of denying, or increasing the cost of services such as banking, insurance, access to jobs, access to health care, or even supermarkets to residents in certain, often racially determined, areas. The term "redlining" was coined in the late 1960s by John McKnight, a...
of prospective clientele by housing administrators. Linguistic profiling extends to issues of legal proceedings
Legal process
Legal process , are the proceedings in any civil lawsuit or criminal prosecution and, particularly, describes the formal notice or writ used by a court to exercise jurisdiction over a person or property...
, employment
Employment
Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. An employee may be defined as:- Employee :...
opportunities, and education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
. The theory is frequently described as the auditory equivalent of racial profiling
Racial profiling
Racial profiling refers to the use of an individual’s race or ethnicity by law enforcement personnel as a key factor in deciding whether to engage in enforcement...
. The bulk of the research and evidence in support of the theory pertain to racial and ethnic
Ethnic group
An ethnic group is a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a common language, a common culture and/or an ideology that stresses common ancestry or endogamy...
distinctions, though its applicability holds within racial or ethnic groups, perceived gender
Gender
Gender is a range of characteristics used to distinguish between males and females, particularly in the cases of men and women and the masculine and feminine attributes assigned to them. Depending on the context, the discriminating characteristics vary from sex to social role to gender identity...
and sexual orientation
Sexual orientation
Sexual orientation describes a pattern of emotional, romantic, or sexual attractions to the opposite sex, the same sex, both, or neither, and the genders that accompany them. By the convention of organized researchers, these attractions are subsumed under heterosexuality, homosexuality,...
, and in distinguishing location of geographic origin.
Baugh's theory is distinct from linguistic profiling as defined by Hans van Halteren from the University of Nijmegen
Radboud University Nijmegen
Radboud University Nijmegen is a public university with a strong focus on research in Nijmegen, the Netherlands...
in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
. Van Halteren's theory deals with the categorization of linguistic features
Feature (linguistics)
A feature is a concept applied to several fields of linguistics, typically involving the assignment of binary or unary conditions which act as constraints.-In phonology:...
for the purposes of author identification and verification from a text, not necessarily specifically addressing the socially defined categories within which they are included.
Linguistic profiling and discrimination
An important distinction exists between the many uses of linguistic profiling and the potential for discriminatory treatment. The power to determine origin or racial identity based on speech can be utilized without overt discrimination, as argued in several court cases where voice was used in the prosecution of a suspect. The negative effects of linguistic profiling are seen in the practice of denying housing or employment based on stereotypeStereotype
A stereotype is a popular belief about specific social groups or types of individuals. The concepts of "stereotype" and "prejudice" are often confused with many other different meanings...
s associated with dialect and/or accent. Further negative practices are associated with education and general treatment of individuals speaking stigmatized
Social stigma
Social stigma is the severe disapproval of or discontent with a person on the grounds of characteristics that distinguish them from other members of a society.Almost all stigma is based on a person differing from social or cultural norms...
dialects. A more positive view of the practice is found in Baugh's description of expressions of ethnic pride. Though average people have been shown to be well equipped in measuring social characteristics by means of speech, the failings of those unfamiliar with a speech community
Speech community
Speech community is a group of people who share a set of norms and expectations regarding the use of language. Speech communities can be members of a profession with a specialized jargon, distinct social groups like high school students or hip hop fans , or even tight-knit groups like families and...
and the capability of manipulation of speech should be taken into account when determining the unbiased
Bias
Bias is an inclination to present or hold a partial perspective at the expense of alternatives. Bias can come in many forms.-In judgement and decision making:...
use of linguistic profiling.
Between racial groups
The primary research done on linguistic profiling was a result of linguist John Baugh's experience searching for housing as an African AmericanAfrican American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
. Baugh found a discrepancy between the proclaimed availability of an apartment in a phone interview, in which he utilized Standard American English
General American
General American , also known as Standard American English , is a major accent of American English. The accent is not restricted to the United States...
, and its apparent unavailability upon a face-to-face meeting with the landlord. The changed conception of the housing administrator between auditory and visual cues pointed to overt discrimination
Discrimination
Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. It involves the actual behaviors towards groups such as excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group. The term began to be...
based on race.
Baugh, Purnell, and Idsardi completed a set of four experiments based on the identification of dialects in American English
American English
American English is a set of dialects of the English language used mostly in the United States. Approximately two-thirds of the world's native speakers of English live in the United States....
. The resulting findings were as follows:
- Discrimination based on dialect does occur.
- It is possible for naïve listeners to identify ethnicity through speechSpeechSpeech is the human faculty of speaking.It may also refer to:* Public speaking, the process of speaking to a group of people* Manner of articulation, how the body parts involved in making speech are manipulated...
. - Very little speech is required to make an accurate identification.
Discrimination based on American English dialect
The first experiment involved a series of telephone surveys in which a single speaker requested housing in the chosen dialects of Chicano English
Chicano English
Chicano English is a dialect of American English used by Chicanos. One major variation of Chicano English is Tejano English, used mainly in south Texas...
, African American Vernacular English
African American Vernacular English
African American Vernacular English —also called African American English; less precisely Black English, Black Vernacular, Black English Vernacular , or Black Vernacular English —is an African American variety of American English...
, and Standard American English. Each landlord selected was subject to three requests in these three dialects, and the correlating negative and positive responses to call-back appointments were shown to favor speakers of Standard American English. Their findings for the percent of call-backs for the two cities of Palo Alto and Woodside, which currently have African American and Hispanic Americans
Hispanic and Latino Americans
Hispanic or Latino Americans are Americans with origins in the Hispanic countries of Latin America or in Spain, and in general all persons in the United States who self-identify as Hispanic or Latino.1990 Census of Population and Housing: A self-designated classification for people whose origins...
populations less than 5%, were as follows:
| Geographic location | Standard American English | Chicano American English | African American Vernacular English |
|---|---|---|---|
| Palo Alto | 63.1% | 39.1% | 48.3% |
| Woodside | 70.1% | 21.8% | 28.7% |
Of the four geographical locations chosen in the study, those with the lowest populations of African Americans and Hispanic Americans were shown to have the greatest bias towards the non-standard dialects.
Distinguishing dialect
In order to determine the ability of people to distinguish dialect, a separate experiment was conducted. Fifty undergraduate students, all Caucasian
White American
White Americans are people of the United States who are considered or consider themselves White. The United States Census Bureau defines White people as those "having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa...
speakers of Standard American English, were asked to identify the ethnicity behind a recording of the word "hello" spoken in either Chicano English, African American Vernacular English, and Standard American English.
Respondents were able to identify the correct dialect more than 70% of the time.
Chicano English was found to be more easily identifiable than African American Vernacular English.
Within racial groups
While much evidence has been collected describing linguistic profiling between racial groups within a speech community, linguistic profiling also extends to members within a racial or ethnic group. This is evidenced by a study conducted by Jaquelyn Rahman describing the perception of middle class African Americans to African American Vernacular English, or AAVE, and Standard American English. She found that subjects associated AAVE with their heritage, while perceiving African Americans who used Standard English as “acting white.”Chinese American and Korean American English speech
An intra-racial distinction was researched by Newman and Wu, who conducted a study in which subjects were asked to identify various speakers based on race; the speakers included Latinos, African Americans, Chinese American
Chinese American
Chinese Americans represent Americans of Chinese descent. Chinese Americans constitute one group of overseas Chinese and also a subgroup of East Asian Americans, which is further a subgroup of Asian Americans...
s, Korean American
Korean American
Korean Americans are Americans of Korean descent, mostly from South Korea, with a small minority from North Korea...
s, and white speakers. Listeners tended to successfully categorize speakers as Latino, African American, white or Asian
Asian people
Asian people or Asiatic people is a term with multiple meanings that refers to people who descend from a portion of Asia's population.- Central Asia :...
; often, they could not discern between Chinese American and Korean American English speakers, although phonetic
Phonology
Phonology is, broadly speaking, the subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the sounds of language. That is, it is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use...
differences exist.
Voice onset time
It has been found that Korean American and Chinese American English speakers tend to have a longer voice onset time
Voice onset time
In phonetics, voice onset time, commonly abbreviated VOT, is a feature of the production of stop consonants. It is defined as the length of time that passes between when a stop consonant is released and when voicing, the vibration of the vocal folds, or, according to the authors, periodicity begins...
(VOT), or the length of time between a stop consonant and voicing
Voice (phonetics)
Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless or voiced. The term, however, is used to refer to two separate concepts. Voicing can refer to the articulatory process in which the vocal cords vibrate...
, than other speakers of Standard American English. Furthermore, Korean American speakers tend to have a longer VOT than Chinese American speakers. This distinction is apparent when considering the VOT of the phonemes [ph], [kh] and [th].
| Phoneme | Standard VOT | Chinese American VOT | Korean American VOT |
|---|---|---|---|
| [ph] | 58 ms | 77 ms | 91 ms |
| [kh] | 70 ms | 75 ms | 94 ms |
| [th] | 80 ms | 87 ms | 126 ms |
Rhythm
Another distinction between Korean American and Chinese American English speakers can be found in the timing of spoken syllables, or rhythm
Rhythm
Rhythm may be generally defined as a "movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions." This general meaning of regular recurrence or pattern in time may be applied to a wide variety of cyclical natural phenomena having a periodicity or...
. Chinese American speakers (in particular, males), tended to speak with a more regular timing of syllable
Syllable
A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. For example, the word water is composed of two syllables: wa and ter. A syllable is typically made up of a syllable nucleus with optional initial and final margins .Syllables are often considered the phonological "building...
s than Korean American speakers.
Gender and sexual orientation
Linguistic profiling also applies to gender and sexual orientation. Munson conducted a study in which naïve listeners were asked to distinguish between heterosexualHeterosexuality
Heterosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the opposite sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, heterosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, physical or romantic attractions to persons of the opposite sex";...
male
Male
Male refers to the biological sex of an organism, or part of an organism, which produces small mobile gametes, called spermatozoa. Each spermatozoon can fuse with a larger female gamete or ovum, in the process of fertilization...
and female speakers
Female
Female is the sex of an organism, or a part of an organism, which produces non-mobile ova .- Defining characteristics :The ova are defined as the larger gametes in a heterogamous reproduction system, while the smaller, usually motile gamete, the spermatozoon, is produced by the male...
, and gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
male and bisexual
Bisexuality
Bisexuality is sexual behavior or an orientation involving physical or romantic attraction to both males and females, especially with regard to men and women. It is one of the three main classifications of sexual orientation, along with a heterosexual and a homosexual orientation, all a part of the...
or lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
female speakers. He found that listeners tended to classify male and female speakers by masculinity
Masculinity
Masculinity is possessing qualities or characteristics considered typical of or appropriate to a man. The term can be used to describe any human, animal or object that has the quality of being masculine...
and femininity
Femininity
Femininity is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles generally associated with girls and women. Though socially constructed, femininity is made up of both socially defined and biologically created factors...
, respectively; male speakers were perceived as gay if they sounded less masculine, while female speakers were identified as bisexual or lesbian if they sounded less feminine.
Perceived femininity
Linguistic features of perceived femininity include the following:- Front vowelsFront vowelA front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also...
are produced with a higher F1 harmonic frequencyHarmonicA harmonic of a wave is a component frequency of the signal that is an integer multiple of the fundamental frequency, i.e. if the fundamental frequency is f, the harmonics have frequencies 2f, 3f, 4f, . . . etc. The harmonics have the property that they are all periodic at the fundamental... - Back vowelsBack vowelA back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark...
are produced with a higher F2 harmonic frequency
Female speakers perceived as bisexual or lesbian exhibited opposite characteristics. Furthermore, speakers who are identified as bisexual or lesbian are not necessarily perceived as masculine.
Perceived masculinity
Linguistic features of perceived masculinity include the following:- Low vowelsOpen vowelAn open vowel is defined as a vowel sound in which the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth. Open vowels are sometimes also called low vowels in reference to the low position of the tongue...
are produced with a higher F1 harmonic frequency - Back vowels are produced with a lower F2 harmonic frequency
- A negative /s/ skew, or a skew towards the first harmonic frequency F1
Male speakers perceived as gay, tended to exhibit opposite characteristics.
In addition, male speakers who were perceived as gay exhibited greater breathiness and hyperarticulation of stressed syllables than male speakers who were perceived as heterosexual. It is important to note that speakers who are identified as gay are not necessarily perceived as feminine.
Geographic origin
Linguistic profiling occurs beyond the spheres of race and ethnicity in the identification of geographic origin. Indeed, evidence suggests that listeners may successfully categorize speakers based upon dialect. Clopper and Pisoni (2003) found that naïve (or inexperienced) listeners could successfully categorize speakers as hailing from New EnglandNew England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
, the South
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
, or the West
Western United States
.The Western United States, commonly referred to as the American West or simply "the West," traditionally refers to the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. Because the U.S. expanded westward after its founding, the meaning of the West has evolved over time...
, but had greater difficulty discerning geographic origin when a larger number of dialects were provided: New England
New England English
New England English refers to the dialects of English spoken in the New England area. These include the Eastern New England dialect , the Western New England dialect , and some Subdialects within these two regions...
, North
North Central American English
North–Central American English is used to refer to a dialect of American English. The region is also known as Upper Midwest among some linguists. It is also sometimes called the Minnesota Accent or Great Lakes Accent. It is widely spoken in the Upper Midwest and the northern portion of the...
, North Midland
Midland American English
The Midland dialect of American English was first defined by Hans Kurath as being the dialect spoken in an area centered on Philadelphia and expanding westward to include most of Pennsylvania and part of the Appalachian Mountains...
, South Midland
Midland American English
The Midland dialect of American English was first defined by Hans Kurath as being the dialect spoken in an area centered on Philadelphia and expanding westward to include most of Pennsylvania and part of the Appalachian Mountains...
, South
Southern American English
Southern American English is a group of dialects of the English language spoken throughout the Southern region of the United States, from Southern and Eastern Maryland, West Virginia and Kentucky to the Gulf Coast, and from the Atlantic coast to most of Texas and Oklahoma.The Southern dialects make...
, West
California English
California English is a dialect of the English language spoken in California. California is home to a highly diverse population, which is reflected in the historical and continuing development of California English.-History:English was first spoken on a wide scale in the area now known as...
, New York City, or Army Brat. Listeners were only able to identify speakers correctly 30% of the time. They also found evidence suggesting that residential history of the listener affected speaker categorization, and that listeners tended to use a small set of phonetic cues to make these distinctions.
Utah English
Baker et al. had similar findings in a study in which UtahUtah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
residents and non-Utah residents were asked to discern the degree of residency of a sample of speakers. Perhaps unsurprisingly, they found that Utah residents and western non-Utah residents tended to correctly identify speakers as being from Utah; the difficulty of other non-Utah residents in identifying Utah speakers was attributed to lack of expertise. However, the western non-Utah residents tended to use more stereotypical phonetic cues to identify speakers than Utah residents. Such findings point to the importance of experience when correctly identifying dialect or region of origin.
Mergers
Speakers of Utah English tend to utilize more mergers
Phonological change
In historical linguistics, phonological change is any sound change which alters the number or distribution of phonemes in a language.In a typological scheme first systematized by Henry M...
than speakers of Western American English; this is to say that speakers of Utah English will pronounce certain phonemes, that are distinct in Western American English, the same way. Some examples include fail-fell, pool-pull, card-cord, pin-pen and heel-hill. Such mergers are used more by older speakers.
O. J. Simpson murder trial
A well known example of the identification of race based on auditory sample in a legal setting occurred during the prosecution of O.J. SimpsonO. J. Simpson murder case
The O. J. Simpson murder case was a criminal trial held in Los Angeles County, California Superior Court from January 29 to October 3, 1995. Former American football star and actor O. J...
. A witness testified against Simpson based on his memory of hearing a “male Black” voice. The objection of Simpson’s lawyer, Mr. Cochran, was overruled by the presiding judge.
Sanchez v. People
A major precedent was formed on the use of linguistic profiling in the case of Sanchez v. People. A witness testified against a suspect based on his overhearing of an argument between two apparent Spanish speakers where the killer was identified as having a DominicanDominican Spanish
Dominican Spanish is Spanish as spoken in the Dominican Republic, a Caribbean country, and throughout the Dominican diaspora, which is found mostly in the United States, chiefly in New York City, Boston, and Miami....
rather than a Puerto Rican
Puerto Rican Spanish
Puerto Rican Spanish is the Spanish language as characteristically spoken in Puerto Rico and by millions of people of Puerto Rican descent living in the United States and elsewhere...
accent. The New York Superior Court
New York Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the trial-level court of general jurisdiction in thestate court system of New York, United States. There is a supreme court in each of New York State's 62 counties, although some smaller counties share judges with neighboring counties...
ruled that distinguishing between accents was permissible based on the fact that “human experience has taught us to discern the variation in the mode of speech of certain individuals.” The court found that a certain degree of familiarity with the accents and dialects of a region or ethnic group qualified an individual to identify ethnicity or race in a court based on auditory evidence
Forensic linguistics
Forensic linguistics is the application of linguistic knowledge, methods and insights to the forensic context of law, language, crime investigation, trial, and judicial procedure. It is a branch of applied linguistics...
.
Clifford v. Kentucky
A similar justification was used in the later case of Clifford v. Kentucky. A white police officer testified against Charles Clifford, an African American appellant at the Kentucky Supreme CourtKentucky Supreme Court
The Kentucky Supreme Court was created by a 1975 constitutional amendment and is the state supreme court of the commonwealth of Kentucky. Prior to that the Kentucky Court of Appeals was the only appellate court in Kentucky...
based on his evaluation of race from spoken language. The presiding Judge cited the findings of Sanchez v. People in justifying the officer's claim of identifying the suspect based on overheard speech. A similar case is that of Clifford v. Commonwealth, where a testimony of linguistic profiling was allowed based on the caveat that "the witness is personally familiar with the general characteristics, accents, or speech patterns of the race or nationality in question, i.e. so long as the opinion is 'rationally based on the perception of the witness'".
Guidelines for the use of linguistic profiling
Linguist Dennis Preston has presented an expansion of the rulings set down on the use of linguistic profiling in legal contexts. Preston argues for the further definition of "personal familiarity" with a dialect to an individual as a member of the speech community within which the identification is taking place. The person identified must be an authentic speaker with no perceived imitation of other dialects within the language. Further, there should be no evidence of overt stereotypes connecting the speaker to a particular style of language.United States v. Ferril
Linguistic profiling is very apparent in employment, as evidenced by the Supreme Court case United States v. Ferril. Shirley Ferril, a former employee of the telemarketing firm TPG, filed suit against the firm after being fired on the basis of her race. Ferril was hired by TPG, a firm that generates 60% of its revenue from providing pre-election “get-out-the-vote” phone calls to prospective voters, for the November 1994 election. She was subsequently fired after the election was over. The particular controversy about the case was TPG’s practice of matching callers to voters based upon race; with the rationale that voters would respond best when the caller was perceived to be a member of their own racial group. This was done with the particular belief that white voters would respond negatively to black callers. Indeed, African American employees would be given a “black” script to read to voters, while white employees read off of a “white script.” Ferril, an African American, primarily called African American voters. Though the suit clearly displayed the fact that Ferril's work was based primarily on her race, the court allowed TPG to continue to assign callers to voters based upon dialect, accent, or speech pattern though acknowledging the practice was engaging in racial stereotypesEthnic stereotype
An ethnic stereotype is a generalized representation of an ethnic group, composed of what are thought to be typical characteristics of members of the group.Ethnic stereotypes are commonly portrayed in ethnic jokes.-Ethnic stereotypes:*African Americans...
.
Perceived race and wages
There is also evidence of a relationship between wages and perceived race. Jeffrey Grogger conducted a study in which listeners were to categorize English-speakers based upon race; listeners would then give opinions regarding the speakers’ level of education, region of origin, and native languageFirst language
A first language is the language a person has learned from birth or within the critical period, or that a person speaks the best and so is often the basis for sociolinguistic identity...
. Listeners could correctly perceive race, but not level of education. Furthermore, there was a correlation between the perceived race of the speaker and the speaker’s total earnings: African American workers who could be identified as black in the study based upon speech earned 12% less than African American workers who were not identified as black; those African American workers that could not be identified by phonetic cues earned as much white workers.
Primary education
Linguistic profiling is also evident in education. Michael Sheperd’s study on teacher's perceptions of student responses compares how favorably teachers from the Los AngelesLos Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
area viewed a response with the race and gender of the student speaker. Students were grouped based on white or minority
Ethnic group
An ethnic group is a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a common language, a common culture and/or an ideology that stresses common ancestry or endogamy...
and male or female. Teachers of various racial and ethnic backgrounds tended to view responses attributed to white females as being most favorable, followed by white boys, then minority girls. Students who were perceived as minority boys were ranked least favorably. Particularly noteworthy is the fact that Black and Hispanic teachers tended to rank responses given by minority boys, minority girls, and white boys, significantly lower than other teachers. While indicative of on overall stigmatization of boys, the study also provides evidence that the negative associations with minority students (who are identified through linguistic profiling) are held by members of all racial groups.
Higher education
In higher education, linguistic profiling has been found to impede student comprehension. In a 1992 study, D. Rubin found that undergraduateUndergraduate education
Undergraduate education is an education level taken prior to gaining a first degree . Hence, in many subjects in many educational systems, undergraduate education is post-secondary education up to the level of a bachelor's degree, such as in the United States, where a university entry level is...
university students would comprehend material more poorly if they heard a non-accented lecture presented with a picture of an Asian female. When the same non-accented lecture was presented with a European American
White American
White Americans are people of the United States who are considered or consider themselves White. The United States Census Bureau defines White people as those "having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa...
teaching assistant, students had a greater ability to comprehend the material. This suggests that face identification may be enough to make students believe that language performance will be accented, which corresponded with a belief that comprehension would be reduced.
Housing
Much of the research regarding the effects of linguistic profiling relates to housing. A study at the University of PennsylvaniaUniversity of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
found that discrepancies existed not only between white speakers of Standard American English and black speakers of African American Vernacular English, but in addition in between females and males and speakers of Black Accented English and African American Vernacular English when applying for housing. African Americans as a whole were also more likely to be told about the problems of creditworthiness when applying for a lease
Lease
A lease is a contractual arrangement calling for the lessee to pay the lessor for use of an asset. A rental agreement is a lease in which the asset is tangible property...
. An explanation offered by the researcher suggests the linkage between low socio-economic backgrounds
Social class
Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...
and African American Vernacular English, while Black Accented English was associated with higher middle class status. Speech closer to the standard form yielded greater acceptance.
The many instances of discrimination suits have failed to form a major precedent
Precedent
In common law legal systems, a precedent or authority is a principle or rule established in a legal case that a court or other judicial body may apply when deciding subsequent cases with similar issues or facts...
relating to this issue. Examples of individual cases include Alexander v. Riga involving the refusal of calls to African American applicants in addition to United States v. Lorantffy Care Center in which African American's were denied admittance to nursing home
Nursing home
A nursing home, convalescent home, skilled nursing unit , care home, rest home, or old people's home provides a type of care of residents: it is a place of residence for people who require constant nursing care and have significant deficiencies with activities of daily living...
s.
The Fair Housing Act
Civil Rights Act of 1968
On April 11, 1968 U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968, also known as the Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968. Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 is commonly known as the Fair Housing Act, or as CRA '68, and was meant as a follow-up to the Civil Rights Act of 1964...
makes explicit the unlawfulness of discrimination against any member of a protected class, including religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
, age, disability
Disability
A disability may be physical, cognitive, mental, sensory, emotional, developmental or some combination of these.Many people would rather be referred to as a person with a disability instead of handicapped...
, gender
Gender
Gender is a range of characteristics used to distinguish between males and females, particularly in the cases of men and women and the masculine and feminine attributes assigned to them. Depending on the context, the discriminating characteristics vary from sex to social role to gender identity...
, and race. Refusal of housing based on the profiling of linguistic traits is clearly illegal, yet evidence must be found that the housing authority in question could indeed effectively determine the race or ethnicity of the applicant. In this way linguistic studies on the ability of lay persons to correctly identify race or ethnic groups based on auditory cues proves helpful to anti-discrimination law.
Outside the U.S.
This practice occurs in regions outside the Untied States, as evidenced in a 2009 study done in Athens, Greece. A telephone field experiment showed the increased difficulty for Albanians, in particular female Albanians, in securing housing. This study also showed a tendency for segregation based on discriminatory housing practices.See also
- Racial profilingRacial profilingRacial profiling refers to the use of an individual’s race or ethnicity by law enforcement personnel as a key factor in deciding whether to engage in enforcement...
- Language ideologyLanguage ideologyIn sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology, a language or linguistic ideology is a systematic construct about how particular ways of using languages carry or are invested with certain moral, religious, social, and political values, giving rise to implicit assumptions that people have about a...
- RedliningRedliningRedlining is the practice of denying, or increasing the cost of services such as banking, insurance, access to jobs, access to health care, or even supermarkets to residents in certain, often racially determined, areas. The term "redlining" was coined in the late 1960s by John McKnight, a...
- Forensic linguisticsForensic linguisticsForensic linguistics is the application of linguistic knowledge, methods and insights to the forensic context of law, language, crime investigation, trial, and judicial procedure. It is a branch of applied linguistics...
- Housing discriminationHousing discrimination (United States)Housing discrimination is when an individual or family is treated unequally when trying to buy, rent, lease, sell or finance a home based on certain characteristics, such as race, class, sexuality, religion, national origin, and familial status...
- EbonicsEbonicsEbonics is a term that was originally intended to refer to the language of all people descended from enslaved Africans, particularly in West Africa, the Caribbean, and North America...
- AAVE/Black EnglishAfrican American Vernacular EnglishAfrican American Vernacular English —also called African American English; less precisely Black English, Black Vernacular, Black English Vernacular , or Black Vernacular English —is an African American variety of American English...