In:Dialect on Air: Bahamian Creole in historical radio broadcasts
Diana Wengler
[Varieties of English Around the World G71] 2025
► pp. xiii–xviii
List of figures
Figure 2.1Map of The Bahamas13
Figure 3.1Network representing the characters’ linguistic interactions in The Fergusons for three different age groups:
teenagers, young adults and adults19
Figure 4.1Zero be by character in percent49
Figure 4.2Variable importance ranking of structural and external predictors of copula variation in The Fergusons and
more recent BahCE data52
Figure 4.3Predicted probability of zero copula by following grammatical environment53
Figure 4.4Predicted probability of zero copula by number of following NP54
Figure 4.5Predicted probability of zero copula by following grammatical environment and data set55
Figure 4.6Predicted probability of zero copula by subject type56
Figure 4.7Predicted probability of zero copula by subject type and data set58
Figure 4.8Predicted probability of zero copula by preceding phonological context59
Figure 4.9Predicted probability of zero copula by preceding phonological context for NP subjects60
Figure 4.10Predicted probability of zero copula by character (A) and following grammatical context (B)60
Figure 4.11Predicted probability of zero copula by prestige (A), age group (B), gender (C) and gender X prestige (D)62
Figure 4.12Variable importance ranking of structural and external predictors of was-levelling in more recent BahCE data
(Laube & Wengler 2018)66
Figure 4.13Variable importance ranking of structural and external predictors of is-levelling in more recent BahCE data
(Laube & Wengler 2018)67
Figure 4.14Be levelling by subject type and temporal reference in The Fergusons69
Figure 4.15Be levelling by following grammatical environment and temporal reference in The Fergusons71
Figure 4.16Be levelling by character and temporal reference in The Fergusons72
Figure 4.17Be levelling by prestige and temporal reference in The Fergusons73
Figure 4.18Be levelling by age group and temporal reference in The Fergusons74
Figure 4.19Be levelling by gender and temporal reference in The Fergusons74
Figure 4.20Variable importance rankings of structural and external predictors of non-past (A) and past (B) be levelling76
Figure 4.21Predicted probability of non-past be levelling by following grammatical environment77
Figure 4.22Predicted probability of non-past be levelling by character prestige (A), subject type (B), individual character (C)
and prestige dyad (D)78
Figure 4.23Predicted probability of non-past be levelling by following grammatical environment across different BahCE data
sets78
Figure 4.24Ain’t in be and have contexts by data set85
Figure 4.25Variable importance ranking of structural and external predictors of do negation in non-past contexts90
Figure 4.26Predicted probability of non-past ain’t by age group (A), age group of addressee (B), age dyad (C), prestige
(D) and gender (E)92
Figure 4.27Predicted probability of non-past ain’t by individual character93
Figure 4.28Predicted probability of non-past ain’t by stativity (A) and negative concord (B)94
Figure 4.29Variable importance ranking of structural and external predictors of do negation in past contexts95
Figure 4.30Predicted probability of past generic ain’t by stativity (A), subject type (B) and negative concord
(C)95
Figure 4.31Predicted probability of past generic ain’t by character96
Figure 4.32Predicted probability of past generic ain’t by age group (A), age group of addressee (B), relative age (C),
prestige (D) and gender (E)97
Figure 4.33Generic ain’t by stativity, temporal reference and data set99
Figure 5.1bath, palm, start and trap based on characters’ mean formant values in The
Fergusons108
Figure 5.2Predicted F1′ values by lexical set, phonological context and social group111
Figure 5.3Predicted F2′ values by lexical set, phonological context and social group113
Figure 5.4Predicted normalized duration by lexical set, phonological context and social group114
Figure 5.5Mean F1′ and F2′ values by lexical set, social group and style (above: Conversational data; below: citation form data; taken
from Kraus 2017: 239, 243)115
Figure 5.6Variable importance rankings of structural and external predictors from random forest analyses for F1′, F2′ and normalized
duration of low values117
Figure 5.7Predicted F1′ and F2′ values by individual character for trap, bath and start118
Figure 5.8Predicted F1′ and F2′ values by individual lexical item for trap, bath and start120
Figure 5.9Predicted F1′ and F2′ values for two high-frequency words by character122
Figure 5.10Predicted F1′ values by duration, gender dyad, character prestige, addressees’ age group, addressees’ prestige, characters’ age
group and following phonological context for trap, bath and start123
Figure 5.11Predicted F2′ by character’s gender, gender dyad, character age group, character’s prestige and duration for trap,
bath and start126
Figure 5.12Predicted vowel duration by character (A) and lexical item (B) for trap, bath and start127
Figure 5.13Predicted normalized duration by lexical set and following phonological context for trap, bath and
start128
Figure 5.14Nuclei and glides for mouth and price based on speakers’ mean values in The
Fergusons136
Figure 5.15Mean Lrat measurements by following phonological context and speaker for mouth136
Figure 5.16Mean Lrat measurements by following phonological context and speaker for price137
Figure 5.17Lrat measures by lexical set and following phonological context138
Figure 5.18Predicted log ratios for mouth by vowel position and following phonological context140
Figure 5.19Predicted log ratios for mouth by vowel position, following phonological context and social group140
Figure 5.20Predicted log ratios for price by vowel position and following phonological context142
Figure 5.21Predicted log ratios for price by vowel position, following phonological context and social group143
Figure 5.22Variable importance rankings of structural and external predictors from random forest analyses for mouth
and price144
Figure 5.23Predicted log ratios by character for mouth and price145
Figure 5.24Predicted log ratios by individual lexical item for mouth and price147
Figure 5.25Predicted log ratios by vowel position, following phonological context and gender for mouth148
Figure 5.26Predicted log ratios by vowel position and following phonological context for price149
Figure 6.1Variable importance rankings of structural and external predictors from random forest analyses of nuclei and glides in
mouth161
