Dialectology in the UW-Madison Community

Abstract

In this study, we researched phonetic and lexical variation across geography, incorporating knowledge of history, demography, and sociolinguistics. We used surveys and audio recordings in attempt to identify patterns in the production of sounds and word choice in the UW–Madison community. We provided an extensive review of relevant literature ranging from vowel change, linguistic research methodology, human development, and historical geography in the region. After data collection, we performed Fisher’s Exact Tests, chi-squared tests, and a proxy cluster analysis using visual representations. Through both statistics and visuals, we came to the conclusion that certain sounds and words behaved as expected across space, and others showed little to no evidence for such.