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The globalization of local indexicalities through music : African-American English and the blues

Romeo De Timmerman (UGent) , Ludovic De Cuypere (UGent) and Stef Slembrouck (UGent)
(2024) JOURNAL OF SOCIOLINGUISTICS. 28(1). p.3-25
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Abstract
This article reports on a sociolinguistic study into the prevalence of African-American English (AAE) features in the lyrical language use of blues artists, relying on data from different social and national backgrounds and time periods. It adopts a variationist linguistic methodological approach to examine the prevalence of five AAE forms in live-performed blues music: /a?/ monophthongization, post-consonantal word-final /t/ deletion, post-consonantal word-final /d/ deletion, alveolar nasal /n/ in ultimas, and post-vocalic word-final /r/ deletion. Mixed effects logistic regression analysis applied to a corpus of 80 performances finds no statistically significant association between national/ethnic background and variant use, and indicates that blues artists, from different eras and nationalities, are highly probable to realize the AAE variant of the analyzed variables, regardless of their sociocultural background. By building on early scholarly work on language and music, existing studies considering the use of AAE by non-members of the African-American community, and current theorizing on authenticity, style, and indexicality, this study hence provides tentative support for the existence of a standard blues singing style, which involves performers using AAE forms as a stylistic-linguistic strategy to index artistic authenticity.
Keywords
African-American English, authenticity, indexicality, staged perfomance, stylistic language use, staged performance, SOCIOLINGUISTICS, AUTHENTICITY, LANGUAGE, IDENTITY, ELEPHANT, DIALECT, ROOM

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MLA
De Timmerman, Romeo, et al. “The Globalization of Local Indexicalities through Music : African-American English and the Blues.” JOURNAL OF SOCIOLINGUISTICS, vol. 28, no. 1, 2024, pp. 3–25, doi:10.1111/josl.12616.
APA
De Timmerman, R., De Cuypere, L., & Slembrouck, S. (2024). The globalization of local indexicalities through music : African-American English and the blues. JOURNAL OF SOCIOLINGUISTICS, 28(1), 3–25. https://doi.org/10.1111/josl.12616
Chicago author-date
De Timmerman, Romeo, Ludovic De Cuypere, and Stef Slembrouck. 2024. “The Globalization of Local Indexicalities through Music : African-American English and the Blues.” JOURNAL OF SOCIOLINGUISTICS 28 (1): 3–25. https://doi.org/10.1111/josl.12616.
Chicago author-date (all authors)
De Timmerman, Romeo, Ludovic De Cuypere, and Stef Slembrouck. 2024. “The Globalization of Local Indexicalities through Music : African-American English and the Blues.” JOURNAL OF SOCIOLINGUISTICS 28 (1): 3–25. doi:10.1111/josl.12616.
Vancouver
1.
De Timmerman R, De Cuypere L, Slembrouck S. The globalization of local indexicalities through music : African-American English and the blues. JOURNAL OF SOCIOLINGUISTICS. 2024;28(1):3–25.
IEEE
[1]
R. De Timmerman, L. De Cuypere, and S. Slembrouck, “The globalization of local indexicalities through music : African-American English and the blues,” JOURNAL OF SOCIOLINGUISTICS, vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 3–25, 2024.
@article{01GVDA302EYMD57N5XXAJAJY4V,
  abstract     = {{This article reports on a sociolinguistic study into the prevalence of African-American English (AAE) features in the lyrical language use of blues artists, relying on data from different social and national backgrounds and time periods. It adopts a variationist linguistic methodological approach to examine the prevalence of five AAE forms in live-performed blues music: /a?/ monophthongization, post-consonantal word-final /t/ deletion, post-consonantal word-final /d/ deletion, alveolar nasal /n/ in ultimas, and post-vocalic word-final /r/ deletion. Mixed effects logistic regression analysis applied to a corpus of 80 performances finds no statistically significant association between national/ethnic background and variant use, and indicates that blues artists, from different eras and nationalities, are highly probable to realize the AAE variant of the analyzed variables, regardless of their sociocultural background. By building on early scholarly work on language and music, existing studies considering the use of AAE by non-members of the African-American community, and current theorizing on authenticity, style, and indexicality, this study hence provides tentative support for the existence of a standard blues singing style, which involves performers using AAE forms as a stylistic-linguistic strategy to index artistic authenticity.}},
  author       = {{De Timmerman, Romeo and De Cuypere, Ludovic and Slembrouck, Stef}},
  issn         = {{1360-6441}},
  journal      = {{JOURNAL OF SOCIOLINGUISTICS}},
  keywords     = {{African-American English,authenticity,indexicality,staged perfomance,stylistic language use,staged performance,SOCIOLINGUISTICS,AUTHENTICITY,LANGUAGE,IDENTITY,ELEPHANT,DIALECT,ROOM}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1}},
  pages        = {{3--25}},
  title        = {{The globalization of local indexicalities through music : African-American English and the blues}},
  url          = {{http://doi.org/10.1111/josl.12616}},
  volume       = {{28}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}
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