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Cross-generational vowel change in American English

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 May 2011

Ewa Jacewicz ,
Robert Allen Fox  and
Joseph Salmons
Ewa Jacewicz
Affiliation:
The Ohio State University
Robert Allen Fox
Affiliation:
The Ohio State University
Joseph Salmons
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin-Madison
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Abstract

This study examines cross-generational changes in the vowel systems in central Ohio, southeastern Wisconsin, and western North Carolina. Speech samples from 239 speakers, males and females, were divided into three age groups: grandparents (66–91 years old), parents (35–51), and children (8–12). Acoustic analysis of vowel dynamics (i.e., formant movement) was undertaken to explore variation in the amount of spectral change for each vowel. A robust set of cross-generational changes in /ɪ, ɛ, æ, ɑ/ was found within each dialect-specific vowel system, involving both their positions and dynamics. With each successive generation, /ɪ, ɛ, æ/ become increasingly monophthongized and /ɑ/ is diphthongized in children. These changes correspond to a general anticlockwise parallel rotation of vowels (with some exceptions in /ɪ/ and /ɛ/). Given the widespread occurrence of these parallel chainlike changes, we term this development the “North American Shift,” which conforms to the general principles of chain shifting formulated by Labov (1994) and others.

Type
Research Article
Information
Language Variation and Change , Volume 23 , Issue 1 , March 2011 , pp. 45 - 86
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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