Early Development of the Western Vowel System in Utah

david bowie is associate professor of English at the University of Alaska Anchorage. He has published research on issues as diverse as changes in progress in Maryland and Utah, variation in linguistic behavior throughout adulthood, ways that people use pronunciation differences to mark themselves as representatives of locally salient social groups, and the cognitive relationship between agreeing with and understanding claims presented as fact. He is currently in the early stages of investigating the perception and production of Englishes spoken in Alaska. Throughout his career, however, the common thread has been the role of individuals as they work together with no overt direction to create emergent social and linguistic communities. E-mail: david.bowie@alaska.edu.