Undergraduate students from the MSU Sociolinguistics Lab were well represented at the 2024 University Undergraduate Research and Arts Forum (UURAF) in April. Gage Landeryou and Caroline Zackerman shared research they conducted for their senior theses in Linguistics under the direction of lab co-director Betsy Sneller. Two other lab students, Drake Howard and Lin Cabada, presented on research that they had conducted for faculty supervisors in French and in Writing respectively. Gage Landeryou gave a winning presentation on transgender speech Gage Landeryou's study was titled ExpressING Gender: The effect of situational comfort on (ing) pronunciation in transgender speech. For this innovative work and for an engaging and professional style, Gage was awarded a prize for best oral presentation in the 'Social Sciences - General' category. Gage Landeryou, one of the two winners for oral presentation in the Social Sciences - General category. Students interacted with visitors and judges UURAF is a huge event. It can be really overwhelming for the in-person, on-site student presenters. According to MSU's UURAF 2024 website: The 26th UURAF was held onsite at the Breslin Center and online at Symposium. Over 1,000 students from 12 colleges participated in the event. They were mentored by over 600 faculty, staff, post-doctoral fellows, graduate students, and government/industry partners. There were over 700 presentations in 32 different subject areas. We're proud to report that Drake, Caroline, and Lin did a great job of explaining their posters to the many visitors and judges who came to see them. Caroline Zackerman explains her poster to a visitor at UURAF 2024. Drake Howard explains his poster to a UURAF 2024 visitor. Students' talks and abstracts Gage Landeryou ExpressING Gender: The Effect of Situational Comfort on (ING) Pronunciation in Transgender Speech This study explores sociolinguistic variation in the speech of binary transgender individuals. My main goal is to investigate how a speaker's comfort with their own gender expression impacts how much they style shift in their pronunciation of (ING) (e.g., pronouncing "running" either as running or runnin') between queer-friendly settings (like their home) versus public settings. Following the methodology of Gratton (2016), who found nonbinary individuals style shifting between private and public settings to avoid the threat of misgendering, I conducted sociolinguistic interviews with 4 binary trans individuals. Each person was interviewed first in their home, and then in a public and not explicitly queer-friendly environment (like a coffee shop). Interviews were transcribed and time aligned, and auditorily coded for pronunciation of (ING). The primary research question was: do trans speakers use their pronunciation of (ING) in public settings to mitigate the threat of being misgendered, in the same way that the nonbinary speakers in Gratton (2016) do?Presenter(s): Mentor: Betsy Sneller (Linguistics) Caroline Zackerman Canadian Raising and Metalinguistic Awareness in Michigan English Canadian Raising is a phonological rule by which the /ay/ diphthong raises before voiceless coda consonants (as in the word PRICE) (Chambers 1973). Speakers of Michigan English do exhibit regular Canadian Raising of /ay/; however, they often consider Canadian Raising to be a uniquely…
