American midland dialect identification using prosodic features and SVM

There has been confusion about the American Midland dialect for a long time. Since 1968, researchers have been looking for an answer to the question of whether it exists or not. Starting with Bailey, who was unsuccessful in identifying the Midland dialect based on vocabulary only, as vocabulary varies within the same community, and ending with Johnson, who proved that the Midland region is a separate region that differs from both the Southern and Northern dialects using some specific words. We aim to strengthen the hypothesis of the existence of the American Midland dialect by using prosodic information. Prosodic differences between North Midland and South Midland dialects and between the Northern and Southern dialects reinforce the existence of the Midland dialect.