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Don Walicek (University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras) Session 92Does history speak for itself? Creole origins, the Founder Principle, & a marginal colonyAccounts of creole genesis anchored in history offer a compelling and informed picture of genesis, yet historical correctness is not afrequent characteristic of such work (Arends 2002). The discussion at hand explores this paradox by focusing on interpretations of theFounder Principle and interaction between persons of European and African ancestry in Anguilla between 1650 and 1750. I suggestthat historical accuracy brushes generalizations about genesis against the grain, utilizing archival evidence to document struggles anddifferences (e.g. "history from below") that contribute to understandings of linguistic contact and variation in ways that standardaccounts do not.Natasha Warner (University of Arizona) Session 23Benjamin Tucker (University of Arizona)Categorical & gradient variability in intervocalic stopsWe examine variability and reduction of /p, t, k, b, d, g/ in flapping environments. We find evidence that an abstract phonologicalprocess (flapping) does indeed apply to /t/ but not to /p, k/, and that the process applying to /t/ is the same one as applies to /d/. Thedata also demonstrate widespread gradient phonetic variability, both systematic (caused by speech style) and random. Surprisingly,though, higher frequency words do not have greater reduction. In sum, this work shows that both categorical phonology and gradientphonetics are necessary to account for how speech sounds are produced.Natasha Warner (University of Arizona) Session 99Lynnika Butler (University of Arizona)Heather van Volkinburg (University of Arizona)Quirina Luna-Costillas (Amah Mutsun Tribal Band)Use of Harrington data in language revitalization & linguistic research: The Mutsun languageMany Native American languages with no living speakers have considerable written documentation as early fieldnotes. We report ona project that has entered all existing data on the dormant Mutsun language (Costanoan family) into a database for use in communitylanguage revitalization and linguistic research. Mutsun was spoken near San Juan Bautista, CA, and lost its last speaker in 1930, butthe community has been working on revitalization for the past 10 years. I provide an overview of the project's status and presentspecific aspects of the morphology that have become clear from the newly accessible data.Yuko Watanabe (University of Arizona) Session 21Perceptual assimilation of German vowels by Japanese speakersThe current study investigates listeners' perception of foreign vowels. Speech perception experiments were conducted with 14German vowels in 6 consonantal contexts followed by the schwa, and the listeners were asked to assimilate German vowels into 10Japanese vowels. Results of the experiments revealed that the listeners used durational information as they assimilated tense vowelsinto long vowels and lax vowels into short vowels. In most cases, they used spectral information as well. Moreover, they assimilatedGerman front rounded vowels into Japanese back vowels; therefore, it could be concluded that the listeners do not use articulatoryinformation.William F. Weigel (Nüümü Yadoha Program) Session 99Preservation of phonetic detail in Yokuts language attritionI present data from Yokuts languages that demonstrate the preservation of remarkably detailed and subtle phonetic distinctions--indeed, distinctions that one would predict to be the first things to be leveled--in languages undergoing significant attrition. Thesedistinctions appear to have gone largely unnoticed by earlier linguists working on these languages and came to the present author'sattention largely as a matter of luck. I discuss possible explanations for the peculiar robustness of these distinctions, along withimplications of this research for elicitation methodology.Sheri Wells-Jensen (Bowling Green State University) Session 54A psycholinguistic analysis of errors in writing BrailleI present the findings from an analysis of a corpus of 1,600 errors in writing Braille and propose a model of Braille writing. The mainfindings were: (1) Braillists' errors are patterned, consisting predominantly of contextual anticipations and perseverations of finger172