Summary Details
| Query: |
Australian [ae]-lengthening
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| Author: | Tonio Green | |
| Submitter Email: | click here to access email | |
| Linguistic LingField(s): |
Phonetics
Phonology |
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| Summary: |
Regarding query: http://www.linguistlist.org/issues/16/16-669.html#1
Dear all, I got a lot of responses to my question about [ae] lengthening in Australian English and am pleased to report that yes, it's a real phenomenon. Almost everyone agreed that at least some Australians (many said *all* Australians) have different vowel lengths in pairs like can/can and lad/bad. Some people confirmed that this is partly true for some speakers of RP as well (no difference in can/can, but in lad/bad and some other pairs). One Australian respondent gave "cans"/"Cairns" as a minimal pair, though, making me wonder whether /ae/ has really split into two phonemes, or whether some /ae/ words have simply gone over to what Wells calls the SQUARE vowel. In other words, if you have a longer vowel in "bad" than in "lad", is "bad" still distinct from "Baird"? (I have been told by New York City speakers that their tensed /ae/ is not distinct from their SQUARE vowel if they're being nonrhotic, so that "pass" rhymes with "scarce", but I don't think there's a real phonemic merger, because NYC speakers have a tendency to suppress nonrhoticity in careful speech, but do not (as far as I know) hypercorrect tense /ae/ to /er/ in words like "pass".) As for literature, I was pointed to: - Burridge, Kate. 1998. English in Australia and New Zealand. Oxford: Oxford University Press. - Leitner, Gerhard. 2004. Australia's Many Voices. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. as well as an unpublished paper by Erich Round comparing Australian [ae] lengthening with Mid-Atlantic [ae] tensing Thanks to everyone who took the time to respond and to share their insights with me, namely: Louise Baird Chris Cleirigh Sarah Cutfield David Deterding Mark Donohue Evan Kidd Gerhard Leitner Duncan Markham Andrew McIntyre Bill Palmer Erich Round Moira Yip Ghil'ad Zuckermann Thanks everyone! -- Tonio Green |
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| LL Issue: | 16.858 | |
| Date Posted: | 21-Mar-2005 | |
| Original Query: | Read original query | |
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