Acoustics and ice hockey: The sociophonetic impact of Canadian English on American-Born players

• Published in: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 2024-03, Vol.155 (3_Supplement), p.A268-A268
• Main Author: Bray, Andrew R.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0001-4966; 1520-8524
• DOI: 10.1121/10.0027454

My research utilizes sociophonetic analysis to document the linguistic identity construction process that is ongoing in the sport of ice hockey. I argue that American-born players are constructing a hockey-based identity influenced by Canadian English (CE) due to the historical Canadian dominance of the sport. This identity incorporates Canadian Raising, FACE and GOAT monophthongization, both commonly attributed to CE and largely unexplainable based on players’ regional dialects, and altered vowel production in hockey-specific terminology, most notably in the word hockey itself, unique to the hockey community. To document this variation, I analyze vowel formant values taken from sociolinguistic interviews with professional hockey players. I assess F1 and F2 values throughout vowel durations to establish if players are converging in production away from regional dialectal variants towards shared hockey-based variants. I argue these variants have gained indexical value linked to an emerging hockey-based identity that, although influenced by CE, is unique to the hockey community. In ongoing research, I aim to further document that this variation is most evident in hockey-specific terminology and that lexical diffusion occurs outwardly from these terms over time leading to players developing a more prevalent hockey-based identity as the sport gains more importance in their lives.