Vowel Inventories and Standard Lexical Sets

24.914 Language Variation & Change Flemming Vowel Inventories and Standard Lexical Sets 1. Standard Lexical Sets The system of vowel phonemes in an accent, plus some basic facts about lexical distribution, can quickly be determined by examining standard sets of words (Wells 1982:117-168): Keyword 2 example Other examples KIT hid ship, rib, dim, milk, slither, myth, pretty, build, women DRESS head step, ebb, hem, shelf, effort, threat, bread, ready, any TRAP had tap, cab, ham, scalp, arrow, plaid LOT hot stop, rob, Tom, solve, profit, honest, swan, waffle STRUT hut cup, rub, hum, pulse, butter, done, monk, touch, blood FOOT hood put, full, cuckoo, good, woman, could BATH half staff, path, brass, raft, clasp, blast, ask, after, master CLOTH coffee off, cross, soft, often, gone, Austin NURSE her hurt, curb, turn, burnt, shirt, firm, jerk, verb, term FLEECE he creep, seed, seem, see, needle, these, brief, ceiling, be FACE hay tape, babe, name, change, taper, bass, bouquet PALM father calm, bra, spa, shah, lama, lava THOUGHT awe caught, naughty, ought, taut, applaud, autumn, jaw GOAT owe soap, road, note, robe, hole, so, noble, brooch, bowl GOOSE who loop, mood, boom, boost, move, duke, cube, plume PRICE high ripe, tribe, time, Friday, child, type, eye, fight CHOICE boy boy, noise, void, coin, poison, employ, groin, hoist MOUTH how out, loud, noun, count, flour, crowd, coward, plough NEAR here beer, here, mere, pier, fear, fierce, beard, weird SQUARE hair care, air, bear, their, where, scarce START car far, star, bazaar, sharp, garb, farm, party, heart, market NORTH or for, assort, orb, form, torpor, orbit, normal, quart FORCE ore adore, bore, oar, floor, deport, pork, coarse, fourth CURE poor tour, endure, gourd, gourmet, tourism, mural, curious happY city copy, baby, ready, fluffy, taxi, committee, coffee lettER paper better, offer, teacher, meter, calendar, stupor, author commA panda quota, vodka, sofa, about, again nd 1 2. The standard lexical sets fall into four basic categories: § Lax vowels: basically KIT – FOOT (BATH, CLOTH vary) § Tense vowels: basically NURSE – MOUTH § Vowels that historically preceded r: NEAR-CURE § Reduced (unstressed) vowels: happY – commA 3. Words that illustrate common major differences in lexical distribution of phonemes: BATH (may group with TRAP or PALM) CLOTH (may group with LOT or THOUGHT) 4. Labov et al (1997, 2006) adopt an historical approach to dialectology – i.e. accents are described in terms of changes from an "initial position" for the vowels: ‘our best estimation of the common base for American English dialects which resulted from the mixing of various English dialects in the 16 and 17 centuries’ th § § § § § 5. th These transcriptions appear to be intended to do double duty as representations of vowel classes, and an approximate indication of the phonetic realization in the starting position. All high front offglides are transcribed as /y/ All high back offglides are transcribed as /w/ /h/ indicates length or a central ‘offglide’ /ə/ /o/, Middle English short /o/, is merged with /ah/ or /oh/ in all American accents. IPA correspondents for Labov’s symbols in ‘textbook’ American English: SHORT LONG front /i/ [ɪ] back /u/ [ʊ] Upgliding Front upgliding Back upgliding front back front back /iy/ [iː] /iw/ [ju] /uw/ [uː] /e/ [ɛ] /ʌ/ [ʌ] /ey/ [eɪ] /æ/ [æ] /o/=/ah/ [ɑ] /oy/ [ɔɪ] /ow/ [oʊ] /ay/ [aɪ] /aw/ [aʊ] 2 Ingliding front back /oh/ [ɔ] /ah/ [ɑ] 6. Mapping between Labov’s vowel class symbols and Wells’ lexical sets: § The NURSE vowel is a rhotic vowel in most American accents, so it doesn’t really belong in the position shown. § MOUTH is shown as a front vowel on the grounds that it is usually [æʊ] in N. America. 3