Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T11:39:52.485Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

On shear markets and sharing sheep: The merger of EAR and AIR diphthongs in New Zealand English

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Janet Holmes  and
Allan Bell
Janet Holmes
Affiliation:
Victoria University of Wellington
Allan Bell
Affiliation:
Victoria University of Wellington
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A social dialect survey of a New Zealand community documented a change in progress in the pronunciation of the vowels in words such as air and ear. The data support a tentative interpretation that a shift to the variant with the closer onset for AIR words was initiated by middle-aged Pakeha women. This was not followed in any strength by other social groups. More recently there has been a change in the opposite direction, with EAR words being realized by a variant with a more open onset. This is being led by young, working class Pakeha speakers, possibly the women. For some speakers, merger of the two diphthongs is close to completion. The change thus seems to have begun in the past 40 years, but its direction has been reversed in the past 20 years. With the strong following among young speakers for the downward shift toward [eə], this seems the likely direction in which change will continue.

Type
Research Article
Information
Language Variation and Change , Volume 4 , Issue 3 , October 1992 , pp. 251 - 273
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bauer, Laurie. (1979). The second Great Vowel Shift? Journal of the International Phonetic Association 9:57–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bauer, Laurie. (1986). Notes on New Zealand English phonetics and phonology. English World-Wide 7:225–258.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bauer, Laurie. (1989). The verb “to have” in New Zealand English. English World-Wide 10:69–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bayard, Donn. (1987). Class and change in New Zealand English: A summary report. Te Reo 30:3–36.Google Scholar
Bayard, Donn. (1991). Social constraints on the phonology of New Zealand English. In Cheshire, Jenny (ed.), English around the world: Sociolinguistic perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 169–186.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bell, Allan. (1984). Language style as audience design. Language in Society 13:145–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bell, Allan, & Holmes, Janet. (1990). New Zealand ways of speaking English. Clevedon, Avon: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Bell, Allan & Holmes, Janet. (1991). New Zealand. In Cheshire, Jenny (ed.), English around the world: Sociolinguistic perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 153–168.Google Scholar
Bortoni-Ricardo, Stella M. (1985). The urbanisation of rural dialect speakers: A sociolinguistic study in Brazil. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cassidy, Frederic G. & Le Page, Robert. (1980). Dictionary of Jamaican English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Eckert, Penelope. (1989). The whole woman: Sex and gender differences in variation. Language Variation and Change 1:245–267.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edwards, Viv. (1986). Language in a Black community. Clevedon, Avon: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Fromkin, Victoria, Rodman, Robert, Collins, Peter & Blair, David. (1984). An introduction to language (Australian edition). Sydney: Holt Rinehart & Winston.Google Scholar
Gordon, Elizabeth, & Maclagan, Margaret A. (1990). A longitudinal study of the ear/air contrast in New Zealand speech. In Bell, Allan & Holmes, Janet (eds.), New Zealand ways of speaking English. Clevedon, Avon: Multilingual Matters. 129–148.Google Scholar
Holmes, Janet & Bell, Allan. (1988). Learning by experience: Notes for New Zealand social dialectologists. Te Reo 31:19–49.Google Scholar
Holmes, Janet, Bell, Allan & Boyce, Mary. (1991). Variation and change in New Zealand English: A social dialect investigation. Project Report to the Social Sciences Committee of the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology. Wellington: Victoria University.Google Scholar
Horvath, Barbara. (1985). Variation in Australian English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kelly, L. G. (1966). The phonemes of New Zealand English. Canadian Journal of Linguistics 11:79–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kurath, Hans & McDavid, Raven I. (1961). The pronunciation of English in the Atlantic states. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Labov, William. (1966). The social stratification of English in New York City. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics.Google Scholar
Labov, William. (1972a). Language in the inner city. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Labov, William. (1972b). Sociolinguistic patterns. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Labov, William. (1972c). Some principles of linguistic methodology. Language in Society 1:97–120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Labov, William. (1975). On the use of the present to explain the past. In Heilmann, L. (ed.), Proceedings of the Eleventh International Congress of Linguists. Bologna: Mulino. 825–851.Google Scholar
Labov, William. (1984). Field methods of the project on linguistic change and variation. In Baugh, John & Sherzer, Joel (eds.), Language in use: Readings in sociolinguistics. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. 28–53.Google Scholar
Labov, William. (1990). The intersection of sex and social class in the course of language change. Language Variation and Change 2:205–254.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Labov, William, Karen, Mark & Miller, Corey. (1991). Near mergers and the suspension of phonemic contrast. Language Variation and Change 3:33–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milroy, Lesley. (1980). Language and social networks. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Milroy, Lesley. (1987). Observing and analysing natural language. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Romaine, Suzanne, (1978). Postvocalic /r/ in Scottish English: Sound change in progress? In Trudgill, Peter (ed.), Sociolinguistic patterns in British English. London: Edward Arnold. 144–157.Google Scholar
Trudgill, Peter. (1972). Sex, covert prestige and linguistic change in the urban British English of Norwich. Language in Society 1:179–195.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trudgill, Peter. (1974). The social differentiation of English in Norwich. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Trudgill, Peter. (1983). On dialect: Social and geographical perspectives. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Trudgill, Peter. (1988). Norwich revisited: Recent linguistic changes in an English urban dialect. English World-Wide 9:33–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trudgill, Peter, & Foxcroft, Tina. (1978). On the sociolinguistics of vocalic mergers: Transfer and approximation in East Anglia. In Trudgill, Peter (ed.), Sociolinguistic patterns in British English. London: Edward Arnold. 69–79.Google Scholar
Trudgill, Peter, & Hannah, Jean. (1982). International English. London: Edward Arnold.Google Scholar
Wall, Arnold. (1938). New Zealand English: How it should be spoken. Christchurch: Whitcombe and Tombs Ltd.Google Scholar
Wolfram, Walter A., & Christian, Donna. (1976). Appalachian speech. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics.Google Scholar