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- Title
On the status of low back vowels in Kentucky English: More evidence of merger.
- Authors
Terry Lynn Irons
- Abstract
In an effort to provide greater understanding of the mechanisms of the diffusion of the low back vowel merger in American English, this study presents a detailed acoustic analysis of low back vowel systems in the speech of 114 native nonurban Kentucky speakers of English. The study reveals unexpected instances of merger in areas of the state that cannot be explained by current theories of merger. In this respect, it argues that these instances of low back vowel merger, while they may be an expansion of an existing merger, result from a distinct mechanism of merger, that is, merger by glide loss. It is predicted that as elements of traditional Southern phonology recede, similar merger will be widespread across the South.This research has been supported by grants from the Kentucky NSF EPSCoR Research Enhancement Grant Program and the Institute for Regional Analysis and Public Policy at Morehead State University. An earlier version of this work was presented at the South Atlantic American Dialect Society session at SECOL 72.
- Subjects
KENTUCKY; ENGLISH language; LANGUAGE &; languages; VOWELS; PHONOLOGY; ENDOWMENTS
- Publication
Language Variation & Change, 2007, Vol 19, Issue 2, p137
- ISSN
0954-3945
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1017/S0954394507070056