Undergrad Savannah Jepson’s work on English in Lapoint, Utah, has done more than fill in a research gap—it’s convinced her to become a researcher.
How much do you know about your own accent? For the perpetually curious, the internet has countless resources, quizzes, and comparison videos, ranging from The New York Times dialect map to TikTok videos. Whether they seek to pick up a new accent or just discover the ins and outs of their own language quirks, people flock to these resources for both entertainment and information.
However, the accuracy of these tests depends heavily on the body of literature and research that exists, and some places have more than others. According to Savannah Jepson (Linguistics ’25), there’s not a whole lot for the western US—a gap she hopes to help fill with her HUM Grant-funded research study on Utah speech.
Her study subject? A tiny town in eastern Utah called Lapoint.
A Town East of the Mountains
As an isolated community of approximately 170 people in Uintah County, Lapoint seems relatively unassuming at first glance. “[The locals] were so shocked that a linguistic study was coming to their town because nobody’s ever done a study there,” Jepson says. However, when it comes to phonology—the study of sounds in language—the town and its accent have a lot to share.
Jepson originally learned about Lapoint speech from her roommate, a Lapoint native. “I would just hear her say specific things that I thought were a little quirky, and they made me really curious about the town,” she says. So, when Jepson needed a study project for her Varieties of English class, she knew exactly what to pick. The initial project simply involved asking her roommate’s friends and family to read a list of words so Jepson could record any phonological differences. Afterwards, however, her professor told her that she could turn it into a full-scale study if she wanted to. “I was like, ‘I absolutely want to do that,’” Jepson says.
As one of her first steps for the full study, Jepson applied for a HUM Grant and used the funds to travel out to Lapoint. She and her sister spent time knocking doors and found a good number of people willing to participate in the study,which consisted of both a word list and interviews. While she doesn’t want to share too much about the specific features her research targets, since making that information public could disqualify potential study participants, Jepson says she looks for insight into phonological patterns that have historically been labeled as “the Utah accent.” Her main hypothesis is that Lapoint has preserved these patterns and therefore the accent, which is dying out in more populated areas of the state.
Trajectory-Changing Experiences
While it will take a bit longer tell whether Jepson’s hypotheses on phonology are confirmed or not, she’s already gained at least one big takeaway from the experience. This opportunity has offered her more than just a chance to conduct a study—she now wants to become a researcher. “This project made me realize I want to get into grad school and research language features,” she says, explaining that she started studying linguistics originally to become an English teacher. She continues, “I’ve realized I love constantly learning. I can’t work a job where I don’t feel like I’m ever learning something, so the idea of doing research for the rest of my life is amazing.”
I love constantly learning. . . This is definitely what I'm passionate about.
Long term, Jepson aims to become a field researcher with a focus on recording and preserving undocumented and endangered languages. When she started college, she didn’t know what she wanted to do beyond a career that allowed her to travel—thanks to her linguistics major and her research project, she’s found an option that will let her travel while also making a meaningful difference. “This is definitely what I’m passionate about, and this is what I want to do,” she says. “This project sent me on a trajectory that I never thought I was gonna go down, and I’m so excited about that.”
Know anybody from Lapoint who might be interested in participating? Contact Jepson at savannahjepson.rm@gmail.com. You can also apply for a HUM Grant here.