LINGUIST List 21.4412 Thu Nov 04 2010 Diss: Phonetics/Phonology/Socioling: Piercy: 'One /a/ or two?: The ...' Editor for this issue: Mfon Udoinyang <mfonlinguistlist.org> To post to LINGUIST, use our convenient web form at http://linguistlist.org/LL/posttolinguist.cfm. Directory         1.     Caroline Piercy , One /a/ or two?: The phonetics, phonology and sociolinguistics of change in the TRAP and BATH vowels in the southwest of England Message 1: One /a/ or two?: The phonetics, phonology and sociolinguistics of change in the TRAP and BATH vowels in the southwest of England Date: 02-Nov-2010 From: Caroline Piercy <ctpiercystanford.edu> Subject: One /a/ or two?: The phonetics, phonology and sociolinguistics of change in the TRAP and BATH vowels in the southwest of England E-mail this message to a friend Institution: University of Essex Program: MPhil/PhD in Linguistics Dissertation Status: Completed Degree Date: 2010 Author: Caroline T Piercy Dissertation Title: One /a/ or two?: The phonetics, phonology and sociolinguistics of change in the TRAP and BATH vowels in the southwest of England. Dissertation URL: www.carolinepiercy.info Linguistic Field(s): Phonetics                             Phonology                             Sociolinguistics Subject Language(s): English (eng) Dissertation Director: David Britain Dissertation Abstract: A question exists as to whether dialects of English in the southwest of England have a contrast in /a/~/ɑː/. Some describe the /æ/~/ɑː/ contrast as absent, variable or doubtful whilst others consider there to be two phonemes, akin to RP, but differing phonetically. This thesis examines this issue through an examination of the vowels in the TRAP, BATH, START and PALM lexical sets. Sociolinguistic interviews were conducted with forty speakers from locations throughout Dorset; a county in the southwest of England. Auditory and acoustic analyses of the quality and crucially the length of vowels across the four lexical sets was undertaken. This analysis revealed that, in both real and apparent time, a phonemic split is in progress. One /a/ phoneme is giving way to two phonemes /a/ and /ɑː/. This split is occurring in a non-uniform way. The backing of the BATH lexical set was found to be proceeding via lexical diffusion whereas the backing of /ar/, START, appeared to be a regular 'neogrammarian' sound change. The analysis also revealed that the short /a/ phoneme could be realised as long before many following environments. Shared constraints, for example, the preference for a lengthened /a/ in closed syllables and common lengthening environments, raise the possibility that occurrences of lengthened or tensed and raised /a/ in New York City English, Philadelphia English and Australian English have their origins in the southwest of England. The analysis of a further 6 phonological and 6 grammatical features reveal that the change in /a/ is indicative of a larger, extensive attrition of the Dorset dialect. This dialect attrition is, I argue, the result of dialect contact and changing communities caused by large scale in and out migration in Dorset. Read more issues|LINGUIST home page|Top of issue Page Updated: 04-Nov-2010       About LINGUIST    |   Contact Us       While the LINGUIST List makes every effort to ensure the linguistic relevance of sites listed on its pages, it cannot vouch for their contents.