Nicole R Holliday
Biographic Data
| ID | 1256312 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Nicole R Holliday |
| GIVEN NAMES | Nicole R |
| FAMILY NAME | Holliday |
| SIGNATURE | HOLLIDAY N R |
| AFFILIATIONS | Pomona College |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8921-2509 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 28 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 20 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Identity and personality in the social perception of synthesized voices
As the line between human speakers and “AI-generated” voices becomes increasingly blurred, it is important to understand how sociolinguistic knowledge affects human-computer interaction. Human listeners have been shown to rely on real-world biases, along with acoustic cues and their social associations, to characterize AI-synthesized voices, but it is often unclear if or how these factors interact. We examined these issues by conducting a product…
Accent modification AI fails to improve listener experience
In public discourse in the modern U.S., complaints about “foreign accents” of call-center workers and the outsourcing of service labor are a common trope (Cowie 2007). Recently, several tech companies have begun to market AI-powered “accent translation” systems that claim to eliminate the “foreign accents” of call-center workers, thereby increasing revenue, improving customer satisfaction, and providing more positive worker experiences (Krisp, 20…
My Memoji, my self
Collecting code-switching data has long been a challenge for sociolinguists, because eliciting naturalistic alternations between one language or variety and another is often pragmatically difficult. Data for the current study comes from a social media thread dedicated to “code-switching”, representing a new way of using online recordings for analysis of sociolinguistic phenomena. In October 2019, a Twitter user posted a Memoji avatar video, solic…
Tool for assessing food industry commitments and practices to address the double burden of malnutrition
BACKGROUND: Many low- and middle-income countries face a double burden of malnutrition, i.e., a co-occurrence of undernutrition with overweight, obesity, or other diet-related noncommunicable diseases. In an increasingly connected global food system, multinational and domestic food industry actors - through their commercial practices and corporate political activity - both contribute to the double burden of malnutrition and hold potential to addr…
Can listeners differentiate varieties using prosodic information? Lect identification in a persona-matching task
Sociolinguists and lay people have long been interested in the mechanisms by which dialect and speaker identification occur. The current study aims to test whether realizational differences found in production studies are salient factors in identification of different lects, as well as to examine differences between groups in identification. In this study, listeners were instructed to match clips containing H* and L+H* pitch accents with specific…
Sociophonetic Properties of Southern California English among Black and Latinx Teens
Descriptions of ethnolects in the U.S. have frequently focused on canonical, well-described features of these varieties, but less work has focused on how such features may overlap and spread into other ethnolects and local varieties in contact. Outside the U.S., the concept of the multiethnolect has been used to describe such situations of dialect contact, but little work has been done to document highly multiethnic dialect contact situations in …
Complex Variation in the Construction of a Sociolinguistic Persona
Over the past few decades, sociolinguists have begun to take greater interest in how public figures, such as politicians, may employ variation at different levels of linguistic structure in the construction of a public persona. These figures are of particular interest because their public and constructed usages may also illuminate wider social usages and indices of specific linguistic variables. This article presents results from analyses of mult…
Effects of the Covid-19 Pandemic on the Wellbeing of LGBTQ+ Individuals in Moldova
Research on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic for LGBTQ+ people is limited, particularly in eastern Europe. This mixed methods study explored the direct and indirect effects of the pandemic on the mental and physical wellbeing of LGBTQ+ individuals in Moldova. From June to the end of July 2022, 86 surveys and 12 interviews were completed by self-identified LGBTQ+ adults in Moldova. Survey data were analyzed with descriptive statistics and inte…
Siri, you've changed! Acoustic properties and racialized judgments of voice assistants
As speech technology is increasingly integrated into modern American society, voice assistants are a more significant part of our everyday lives. According to Apple, Siri fulfills 25 billion requests each month. As part of a software update in April 2021, users in the U.S. were presented with a choice of 4 Siris. While in beta testing, users on Twitter began to comment that they felt that some of the voices had racial identities, noting in partic…
A sociophonetic account of gradient /z/ devoicing among Chicanx high schoolers
This paper examines final /z/ devoicing among Chicanx teens in Southern California to investigate the degree to which devoiced final /z/ neutralizes with final /s/ in this dialect. Results indicate on the one hand that devoiced /z/ remains distinct from /s/: as expected, devoiced /z/ is significantly less voiceless than /s/ and has a significantly lower center of gravity (COG). However, unexpectedly, devoiced /z/ has a significantly longer fricat…
American English pitch accents in variation
Intonation and Referee Design Phenomena in the Narrative Speech of Black/Biracial Men
This study examines how men with one Black parent and one white parent variably construct their racial identities through both linguistic practice and explicit testimonials, with a specific focus on how this construction is realized in narratives about law enforcement. The data consist of interviews with five young men, aged 18-32, in Washington, D.C., and the analysis compares use of intonational phenomena associated with African American Langua…
“It’s a Whole Vibe”
This study focuses on listener perceptions of African American English (AAE) on Twitter, examining both grammatical and ungrammatical usages, as well as how these perceptions may be affected by the race of the speaker and rater. We conducted an experimental survey designed to address the following questions: 1. Does avatar race affect perception of the grammaticality of AAE? 2. Are differences between grammatical and ungrammatical AAE discernible…
Sociolinguistic labor, linguistic climate, and race(ism) on campus
This project explores the sociolinguistic experiences of black American students in predominantly/historically white higher education settings. Through interviews with 30 black undergraduates at two different types of institutions, we show how language is a salient factor in racialization and racism on American college campuses. Both sets of students discussed stereotype threat (being at risk of negative stereotyping based on their language), as …
Prosody and Sociolinguistic Variation in American Englishes
Though scholarly understandings of sociolinguistic variation have undergone a significant expansion in the last 70 years, variables in the realm of prosody remain severely underdescribed. It is necessary to examine variation at these levels both because of its perceptual salience and utility for speakers and listeners and because of what it can illuminate about cross-variety sociolinguistic differences. This article reviews some of the key method…
Multiracial identity and racial complexity in sociolinguistic variation
What is the relationship between ethnolinguistic communities and ways of speaking? Who is an authentic speaker of an ethnolinguistic variety? In a time where scholarly and public conceptualizations of race and ethnicity are variable and rapidly changing, potential effects on both self‐identification and ways of speaking present an area ripe for study. However, linguistics and allied fields have often overlooked individuals and communities that do…
Variation in Question Intonation in the Corpus of Regional African American Language
This study examines use of rising, falling, and level boundary tones across question types in the Corpus of Regional African American Language. Data were taken from interviews with 87 speakers in Washington, D.C.: 53 in the DCA component, conducted in 1968–69, and 34 in the DCB component, conducted in 2015–17. Results of multiple mixed-effects regression models indicate substantial variation within speakers in the use of question tones, as well a…
Vowel categories and allophonic lowering among Bolivian Quechua-Spanish bilinguals
This paper is an acoustic study describing the vowel spaces of bilingual Quechua-Spanish speakers in Cochabamba, Bolivia, with a particular focus on the height of mid and high vowels, in order to explore longstanding questions about the nature of Quechua vowel categories. South Bolivian Quechua is generally described as phonemically trivocalic with high-vowel lowering in presence of uvular consonants, but there has been little acoustic study of v…
My Presiden(t) and Firs(t) Lady Were Black
This article compares Michelle and Barack Obama's coronal stop deletion (CSD) rates in different contexts at different time points in order to examine the effects of time and context on an aspect of the speech of these black political figures. Data are taken from each of the Obamas' speeches from the 2012 and 2016 Democratic National Conventions as well as two joint interviews from 2012 and 2016. Results of regression models indicate that Barack …
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About African American Language (But Didn't Know to Ask)
Book Review| February 01 2016 Everything You Always Wanted to Know About African American Language (But Didn't Know to Ask) The Oxford Handbook of African American Language. Edited by Lanehart, Sonja. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015. Pp. xxxvii + 903. ISBN 978-0-19-979539-0; $175.00 (ebk $174.99) Nicole Holliday Nicole Holliday Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google American Speech (2016) 91 (1): 100–106. https://doi.org…
My Presiden(t) and Firs(t) Lady Were Black
This article compares Michelle and Barack Obama's coronal stop deletion (CSD) rates in different contexts at different time points in order to examine the effects of time and context on an aspect of the speech of these black political figures. Data are taken from each of the Obamas' speeches from the 2012 and 2016 Democratic National Conventions as well as two joint interviews from 2012 and 2016. Results of regression models indicate that Barack …
Sociolinguistic labor, linguistic climate, and race(ism) on campus
This project explores the sociolinguistic experiences of black American students in predominantly/historically white higher education settings. Through interviews with 30 black undergraduates at two different types of institutions, we show how language is a salient factor in racialization and racism on American college campuses. Both sets of students discussed stereotype threat (being at risk of negative stereotyping based on their language), as …
Variation in Question Intonation in the Corpus of Regional African American Language
This study examines use of rising, falling, and level boundary tones across question types in the Corpus of Regional African American Language. Data were taken from interviews with 87 speakers in Washington, D.C.: 53 in the DCA component, conducted in 1968–69, and 34 in the DCB component, conducted in 2015–17. Results of multiple mixed-effects regression models indicate substantial variation within speakers in the use of question tones, as well a…
American English pitch accents in variation
Prosody and Sociolinguistic Variation in American Englishes
Though scholarly understandings of sociolinguistic variation have undergone a significant expansion in the last 70 years, variables in the realm of prosody remain severely underdescribed. It is necessary to examine variation at these levels both because of its perceptual salience and utility for speakers and listeners and because of what it can illuminate about cross-variety sociolinguistic differences. This article reviews some of the key method…
Complex Variation in the Construction of a Sociolinguistic Persona
Over the past few decades, sociolinguists have begun to take greater interest in how public figures, such as politicians, may employ variation at different levels of linguistic structure in the construction of a public persona. These figures are of particular interest because their public and constructed usages may also illuminate wider social usages and indices of specific linguistic variables. This article presents results from analyses of mult…
Multiracial identity and racial complexity in sociolinguistic variation
What is the relationship between ethnolinguistic communities and ways of speaking? Who is an authentic speaker of an ethnolinguistic variety? In a time where scholarly and public conceptualizations of race and ethnicity are variable and rapidly changing, potential effects on both self‐identification and ways of speaking present an area ripe for study. However, linguistics and allied fields have often overlooked individuals and communities that do…
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About African American Language (But Didn't Know to Ask)
Book Review| February 01 2016 Everything You Always Wanted to Know About African American Language (But Didn't Know to Ask) The Oxford Handbook of African American Language. Edited by Lanehart, Sonja. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015. Pp. xxxvii + 903. ISBN 978-0-19-979539-0; $175.00 (ebk $174.99) Nicole Holliday Nicole Holliday Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google American Speech (2016) 91 (1): 100–106. https://doi.org…
My Presiden(t) and Firs(t) Lady Were Black
This article compares Michelle and Barack Obama's coronal stop deletion (CSD) rates in different contexts at different time points in order to examine the effects of time and context on an aspect of the speech of these black political figures. Data are taken from each of the Obamas' speeches from the 2012 and 2016 Democratic National Conventions as well as two joint interviews from 2012 and 2016. Results of regression models indicate that Barack …
Vowel categories and allophonic lowering among Bolivian Quechua-Spanish bilinguals
This paper is an acoustic study describing the vowel spaces of bilingual Quechua-Spanish speakers in Cochabamba, Bolivia, with a particular focus on the height of mid and high vowels, in order to explore longstanding questions about the nature of Quechua vowel categories. South Bolivian Quechua is generally described as phonemically trivocalic with high-vowel lowering in presence of uvular consonants, but there has been little acoustic study of v…
Multiracial identity and racial complexity in sociolinguistic variation
What is the relationship between ethnolinguistic communities and ways of speaking? Who is an authentic speaker of an ethnolinguistic variety? In a time where scholarly and public conceptualizations of race and ethnicity are variable and rapidly changing, potential effects on both self‐identification and ways of speaking present an area ripe for study. However, linguistics and allied fields have often overlooked individuals and communities that do…
Variation in Question Intonation in the Corpus of Regional African American Language
This study examines use of rising, falling, and level boundary tones across question types in the Corpus of Regional African American Language. Data were taken from interviews with 87 speakers in Washington, D.C.: 53 in the DCA component, conducted in 1968–69, and 34 in the DCB component, conducted in 2015–17. Results of multiple mixed-effects regression models indicate substantial variation within speakers in the use of question tones, as well a…
Prosody and Sociolinguistic Variation in American Englishes
Though scholarly understandings of sociolinguistic variation have undergone a significant expansion in the last 70 years, variables in the realm of prosody remain severely underdescribed. It is necessary to examine variation at these levels both because of its perceptual salience and utility for speakers and listeners and because of what it can illuminate about cross-variety sociolinguistic differences. This article reviews some of the key method…
Intonation and Referee Design Phenomena in the Narrative Speech of Black/Biracial Men
This study examines how men with one Black parent and one white parent variably construct their racial identities through both linguistic practice and explicit testimonials, with a specific focus on how this construction is realized in narratives about law enforcement. The data consist of interviews with five young men, aged 18-32, in Washington, D.C., and the analysis compares use of intonational phenomena associated with African American Langua…
“It’s a Whole Vibe”
This study focuses on listener perceptions of African American English (AAE) on Twitter, examining both grammatical and ungrammatical usages, as well as how these perceptions may be affected by the race of the speaker and rater. We conducted an experimental survey designed to address the following questions: 1. Does avatar race affect perception of the grammaticality of AAE? 2. Are differences between grammatical and ungrammatical AAE discernible…
Sociolinguistic labor, linguistic climate, and race(ism) on campus
This project explores the sociolinguistic experiences of black American students in predominantly/historically white higher education settings. Through interviews with 30 black undergraduates at two different types of institutions, we show how language is a salient factor in racialization and racism on American college campuses. Both sets of students discussed stereotype threat (being at risk of negative stereotyping based on their language), as …
A sociophonetic account of gradient /z/ devoicing among Chicanx high schoolers
This paper examines final /z/ devoicing among Chicanx teens in Southern California to investigate the degree to which devoiced final /z/ neutralizes with final /s/ in this dialect. Results indicate on the one hand that devoiced /z/ remains distinct from /s/: as expected, devoiced /z/ is significantly less voiceless than /s/ and has a significantly lower center of gravity (COG). However, unexpectedly, devoiced /z/ has a significantly longer fricat…
American English pitch accents in variation
Siri, you've changed! Acoustic properties and racialized judgments of voice assistants
As speech technology is increasingly integrated into modern American society, voice assistants are a more significant part of our everyday lives. According to Apple, Siri fulfills 25 billion requests each month. As part of a software update in April 2021, users in the U.S. were presented with a choice of 4 Siris. While in beta testing, users on Twitter began to comment that they felt that some of the voices had racial identities, noting in partic…
Can listeners differentiate varieties using prosodic information? Lect identification in a persona-matching task
Sociolinguists and lay people have long been interested in the mechanisms by which dialect and speaker identification occur. The current study aims to test whether realizational differences found in production studies are salient factors in identification of different lects, as well as to examine differences between groups in identification. In this study, listeners were instructed to match clips containing H* and L+H* pitch accents with specific…
Sociophonetic Properties of Southern California English among Black and Latinx Teens
Descriptions of ethnolects in the U.S. have frequently focused on canonical, well-described features of these varieties, but less work has focused on how such features may overlap and spread into other ethnolects and local varieties in contact. Outside the U.S., the concept of the multiethnolect has been used to describe such situations of dialect contact, but little work has been done to document highly multiethnic dialect contact situations in …
Complex Variation in the Construction of a Sociolinguistic Persona
Over the past few decades, sociolinguists have begun to take greater interest in how public figures, such as politicians, may employ variation at different levels of linguistic structure in the construction of a public persona. These figures are of particular interest because their public and constructed usages may also illuminate wider social usages and indices of specific linguistic variables. This article presents results from analyses of mult…
Effects of the Covid-19 Pandemic on the Wellbeing of LGBTQ+ Individuals in Moldova
Research on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic for LGBTQ+ people is limited, particularly in eastern Europe. This mixed methods study explored the direct and indirect effects of the pandemic on the mental and physical wellbeing of LGBTQ+ individuals in Moldova. From June to the end of July 2022, 86 surveys and 12 interviews were completed by self-identified LGBTQ+ adults in Moldova. Survey data were analyzed with descriptive statistics and inte…
My Memoji, my self
Collecting code-switching data has long been a challenge for sociolinguists, because eliciting naturalistic alternations between one language or variety and another is often pragmatically difficult. Data for the current study comes from a social media thread dedicated to “code-switching”, representing a new way of using online recordings for analysis of sociolinguistic phenomena. In October 2019, a Twitter user posted a Memoji avatar video, solic…
Tool for assessing food industry commitments and practices to address the double burden of malnutrition
BACKGROUND: Many low- and middle-income countries face a double burden of malnutrition, i.e., a co-occurrence of undernutrition with overweight, obesity, or other diet-related noncommunicable diseases. In an increasingly connected global food system, multinational and domestic food industry actors - through their commercial practices and corporate political activity - both contribute to the double burden of malnutrition and hold potential to addr…
Identity and personality in the social perception of synthesized voices
As the line between human speakers and “AI-generated” voices becomes increasingly blurred, it is important to understand how sociolinguistic knowledge affects human-computer interaction. Human listeners have been shown to rely on real-world biases, along with acoustic cues and their social associations, to characterize AI-synthesized voices, but it is often unclear if or how these factors interact. We examined these issues by conducting a product…
Accent modification AI fails to improve listener experience
In public discourse in the modern U.S., complaints about “foreign accents” of call-center workers and the outsourcing of service labor are a common trope (Cowie 2007). Recently, several tech companies have begun to market AI-powered “accent translation” systems that claim to eliminate the “foreign accents” of call-center workers, thereby increasing revenue, improving customer satisfaction, and providing more positive worker experiences (Krisp, 20…
Linguistic Variation and Morphology (15 works) · Linguistics (15 works) · Psychology (14 works) · Multilingual Education and Policy (11 works) · Sociology (11 works) · Phonetics and Phonology Research (9 works) · Computer Science (8 works) · History (5 works) · Philosophy (5 works) · Political science (5 works)