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Structured Heterogeneity and Change in Laryngeal Phonetics

Upper Midwestern Final Obstruents

Joseph Salmons

Dilara Tepeli

Jennifer Mercer

University of Wisconsin–Madison

American sociolinguists have largely ignored obstruents as invariant, including how speakers distinguish /s, t/ from /z, d/. Upper Midwestern final obstruents provide clear evidence that the realization of such contrasts can and does vary. In a once German-speaking Wisconsin town, we have found that speakers systematically produce final laryngeal distinctions differently than reported for American English, with an apparent partial neutralization of the distinction. Here, we seek the historical antecedents of this pattern, comparing acoustic characteristics of recordings from speakers throughout the region born from 1866–1986. Analysis by date of birth shows distinct obstruent phonetics over this whole period, revealing striking changes in which acoustic cues have been exploited to maintain the distinction: The oldest speakers used primarily glottal pulsing, younger ones exhibit a "trading relation" between pulsing and preceding-vowel duration, and the youngest have reduced the acoustic cues of the distinction dramatically.

Key Words: obstruents • sociophonetics • variation and change • voicing • trading relations • cue exploitation

Journal of English Linguistics, Vol. 33, No. 4, 307-338 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/0075424205285637


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