Social Meanings of the Low-Back-Merger Shift among Young Asian Americans in Georgia

Abstract This article analyzes the vowel systems of 56 Asian American college students in Atlanta, Georgia, with reference to 26 Black and 125 White peers. With the greatest overlap between /ɑ/ and /ɔ/ and the lowest and backest /æ/, Asian Americans are at the forefront of the rising, supralocal Low-Back-Merger Shift (LBMS), although they show a backer /o/ and a lower and backer prenasal /æ/ than is usually associated with the LBMS. No significant differences are found among those of South, East, or Southeast Asian backgrounds nor among those with family heritage from India, China, or Korea, consistent with speakers’ recognition of a (pan)–Asian American identity. In metalinguistic commentary, speakers project elite education and cosmopolitanism, illuminating the social meanings that may propel the rise of the LBMS across regions and ethnicities.