Perceptual Dialectology in the 21st Century
differences, but Niedzielski wrote (in large red letters) the word CANADI-
AN
or MICHIGAN across the top of the respondent’s test page. When the
respondents saw the word “Canadian”, they accurately matched the pro-
nunciations ten percent of the time; when the word “Michigan” was at the
top of the page, there were no accurate matchings. With the word “Michi-
gan”, the respondents actually selected the ‘hyperstandard’ token ten per-
cent of the time (and only three percent when “Canadian” appeared). The
respondents’ ideology (that ‘correct English’ is spoken in Michigan) is at
work here (see Figure 9), and, even though their own systems are shifted,
they subconsciously refer to an ideological standard, ...