American Speech, Vol. 94, No. 1, February 2019 doi 10.1215/00031283-7308049 Copyright 2019 by the American Dialect Society 72 THE STATUS OF (ING) IN AFRICAN AMERICAN LANGUAGE: A QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL FACTORS AND INTERNAL CONSTRAINTS JON FORREST WALT WOLFRAM Indiana University North Carolina State University abstract: This article examines variability in the social factors and internal linguistic constraints on (ING) in African American Language (AAL) based on a comparison of the two Corpus of Regional African American Language (CORAAL) components from Washington, D.C., CORAAL:DCA (recorded 1968–69) and CORAAL:DCB (recorded 2015–17). It also compares DCA with an early study of (ING) in Detroit in 1968. The analysis indicates important differences in how social factors correlate with (ING) over both space and time, as socioeconomic status and gender show differential intersections that distinguish the earlier AAL sample from Washington, D.C., from a comparable AAL sample from Detroit, as well as the D.C. sample a half- century later. Internal constraints from the current CORAAL study tend to align with those indicted in other studies, but some minor constraint effects indicate structural diversity. The comparative results point to a more nuanced understanding of the features that characterize AAL over time and place as well as a more informed per- spective on how (ING) functions as a general sociolinguistic variable. keywords: African American Language, language variation and change, social class, (ING) F luctuation in the production of the final consonant of -ing a velar nasal [N] or as an alveolar nasal [n] in the final, unstressed syllable of words (e.g., cutting vs. cuttin’ or running vs. runnin’ ), typically represented in spell- ing as -in and -ing, respectively, is one of the most highly recognized and one of the most studied linguistic variables in the English language. The so-called (ING) variable is a stereotypical feature of American English that most speakers of English are aware of and may discuss in public discussions of language variation. In this study, we examine the use of (ING) in African American Language (AAL) over space and time to determine the extent of language variation within the African American community, as well as its alignment with other varieties of English. Downloaded from https://read.dukeupress.edu/american-speech/article-pdf/94/1/72/566922/0940072.pdf by UNIV GA ATHENS user on 21 August 2019