Andrew Radford - Linguistics An Introduction [Second Edition]

voiced

baby

steady

haggle

[bɛɪbi] → [bɛɪβi]

[stedi] → [stezi]

[haɡl̩] → [haɣl̩]

of the English city of Liverpool, where the voiceless stops [p t k] have become the voiceless fricatives [ɸ s x] respectively, and the voiced stops [b d ɡ] have become the voiced fricatives [β z ɣ] respectively, in non-word-initial positions.

In each case, the new sound retains its original place of articulation and its voicing characteristics, but by turning from a stop into a fricative, it has undergone a change in manner of articulation, i.e. it illustrates a change in (c) in our three-term description of consonants. Table 8 includes examples of each of the six changes.

Notice that most of the consonant changes discussed above do not result in

the language having fewer or more sounds. However, the change exemplified in (34) does have this consequence, since [θ] is being replaced by [f] in all linguistic contexts – word initial (three, think), word medial (ether) and word final (moth, pith) – the conclusion of this process will be a variety of English which lacks [θ]

entirely.

Sometimes changes can involve consonants being completely lost rather than

replaced by others. We can point to examples such as the loss of [h] in words such as those in (36):

(36)

hand: [hand] → [and]

house: [haus] → [aus]

Harry: [haɹɪ] → [aɹɪ]

In twentieth-century Britain, this change appeared to be spreading, but recently evidence has suggested it may well be on the decline in some parts of the country.

It has certainly been receding in Australasia and is not known in North America.

Another example is the loss of the glide [j] before [uː] in words such as tune, duke, new, enthusiasm, resume, solution, etc., a change commonly known as yod-dropping. So, in some varieties of American English we find changes such as

those in (37):

(37)

New Zealand: [njuːziːlənd] → [nuːziːlənd]

student:

[stjuːdənt]

→ [stuːdənt]

avenue:

[ævənjuː]

→ [ævənuː]

Some dialects – for example those spoken in eastern England – have gone further than others in this change, dropping the [j] in words such as beautiful [buːʔəfəɫ]

and cute [kuːʔ].

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sounds

It is also possible for a consonant to be inserted where one previously didn’t exist. A well-known example of this is provided by the dialects which have

inserted [p] in the emphatic forms of the words yes and no:

(38)

yeah: [je] → [jep] ‘yep’

no:

[nʌʊ] → [nʌʊp] ‘nope’

Also familiar from some British and Australasian accents is the insertion of [k]

after -ing in the words nothing and something:

(39)

nothing:

[nʌfɪŋ] → [nʌfɪŋk]

something: [sʌmfɪŋ] → [sʌmfɪŋk]

A final example from the history of English involves the insertion of the

bilabial stops [p b] in such Middle English words as shamle and Old English

bremel resulting in their contemporary forms [ʃæmbl̩] shamble and [bræmbl̩]

bramble.

Vowel change

What about vowel changes? Section 2 showed that vowels are usually

classified with respect to (a) height; (b) front/backness; (c) lip rounding or spreading. As with consonants, changes can affect vowels along each of these dimensions. Some examples appear in table 9.

In addition, it is possible for monophthongs to become diphthongs. An example from Australian English appears in (40):

(40)

[iː] → [əɪ]: eat the peanuts is pronounced [əɪtðəpəɪnɐts]

Or, in the US city of Philadelphia, we find the change in (41): (41)

[æ] → [eːə]: mad, bad and glad are respectively pronounced as [me:əd],

[beːəd] and [ɡleːəd]

The converse process of diphthongs (and triphthongs – complex vowels which

exhibit three distinct qualities) becoming monophthongs is also attested. The Table 9 Vowel changes in contemporary varieties of English

change

which dialect of

change in

from

change to example

English?

height (raising)

[æ]

[ɛ]

bad

Southern

[bæd] → [bɛd]

Hemisphere

front/back (backing)

[ɛ]

[ʌ]

bell

Norwich, England.

[bɛl] → [bʌl]

lip position (rounding)

[ɜː]

[øː]

nurse

New Zealand

[nɜːs] → [nøːs]

Sound change

65

examples in (42) are from East Anglian English, with the last three involving triphthongs:

(42)

sure:

[∫ʊə]

→ [∫ɜː]

player: [pleiə] → [plæː]

fire:

[fаiə] → [fɑː]

tower: [tauə] → [tɑː]

We saw above that for consonants it is possible for a sound change to result in the loss of a particular sound when it is systematically replaced by another which already exists in the language. Similar situations can be identified for vowels (vowel mergers), along with the opposite process where a vowel splits into two distinct sounds (vowel splits). Figure 25 illustrates an example of the latter taking place in London round about 1550 and its consequences for the speech of contemporary Londoners.

1400

1550

2000

put, bush, pull

put, bush, pull

[U]

[U]

[U]

[Ù]

[V]

[6]

[a]

cup , luck , mud

cup , luck , mud

Figure 25 A vowel split in London

What we see here is a situation where the high back vowel [ʊ] split. In 1400, all the words put, bush, pull, cup, luck and mud included the vowel [ʊ]. By about 1550, the vowel in cup, luck and mud had lowered to [ɤ], but put, bush and pull retained [ʊ]. Later, in some dialects (most notably in South East England and Australasia), the lowered vowel in cup, luck and mud moved through a number of stages to the front, so as to become [a] in some contemporary dialects. This split occurred both in southern England and Scotland and is found in all the English varieties of North America and the Southern Hemisphere. It did not occur in

northern England, which retains [ʊ] in such words as cup, luck and mud. There is evidence that some of the present-day [ʊ]-class words are unrounding in many varieties of English, so book is being pronounced by some as [bɪk], [ɪ] being a centralised unrounded high vowel.

Mergers are far more common than splits, and examples are easy to find from

around the English-speaking world. One instance which was noted in section 2 is the identical pronunciation (as [meriː]) of the words merry, marry and Mary in parts of the western and central United States. Similar examples are the merger in some dialects, of [ʊə] and [ɔː], so both sure and shore become [∫ɔː], and the merger in a few rural eastern English dialects of [au] and [ɛə] with the result that cow and care are pronounced identically as [kɛː].

66

sounds

A slightly more complex case can be identified in New Zealand, the Caribbean and Norfolk, where the diphthongs [iə] and [ɛə] have merged. Interestingly,

however, whereas in Norfolk the merger has resulted in [ɛə] taking over in words where [iə] was previously found, in both New Zealand and the Caribbean, a new diphthong [eə] has replaced both of the original sounds. Thus, whereas both bear and beer have come to be pronounced like bear in Norfolk, they have both come to be pronounced as [beə] in the other two locations.

Finally, we can note an example of the rural dialect of Norfolk not undergoing a merger that has affected most other English varieties. This is the merger of the diphthongs in toe and tow, which were distinct in Middle English. They began to merge in the seventeenth century, but as the examples from Norfolk English in