Demarcating place authenticity in the CHICAGO vowel

This article analyzes variation in and metalinguistic commentary surrounding the primary stressed vowel of the place-name ‘Chicago’. Sociolinguistic interview data with fifty-six lifelong Chicagoans from two adjacent neighborhoods reveal both social variation and apparent time evolution in the phonetic manifestation and phonemic patterning of the CHICAGO vowel. Contrastive metalinguistic ideologies substantiate this variation, as different speakers map ‘authentic’ versus ‘inauthentic’ Chicagoness to opposite phonemic variants. While previous work on place-names proposed linkages between place identity and linguistic material that can articulate stances toward geographic areas, we document inverted semiotic mappings among residents who otherwise share the same positive orientation to their neighborhood. We draw upon locally constructed chronotopes to account for the inverse polarization characterizing the CHICAGO vowel. We ultimately argue for dynamic conceptions of place-based linguistic features that attend more closely to the ideologically productive nature of local identity. (Authenticity, place, race, sociolinguistic variation, differentiation, chronotope)