LINGUIST List 20.965: Phonetics/Socioling: Bekker: 'The Vowels of South African ...'

LINGUIST List 20.965

Thu Mar 19 2009

Diss: Phonetics/Socioling: Bekker: 'The Vowels of South African ...'

Editor for this issue: Evelyn Richter <evelynlinguistlist.org>

1. Ian Bekker, The Vowels of South African English

Message 1: The Vowels of South African English
Date: 19-Mar-2009
From: Ian Bekker <i.bekkerru.ac.za>
Subject: The Vowels of South African English
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Institution: North-West University Program: English Dissertation Status: Completed Degree Date: 2009

Author: Ian Bekker

Dissertation Title: The Vowels of South African English

Dissertation URL: http://oldwww.ru.ac.za/academic/departments/linguistics/staff/ian/phdmain.pdf

Linguistic Field(s): Historical Linguistics Phonetics Sociolinguistics
Subject Language(s): English (eng)
Dissertation Director:
Bertus Van Rooy
Dissertation Abstract:

This thesis provides a comparative analysis of vowel quality in SouthAfrican English (SAE) using the following data: firstly, the existingimpressionistic literature on SAE and other relevant accents of English,the former of which is subject to a critical review; secondly, acousticdata from a similar range of accents, including new SAE data, collected andinstrumentally analyzed specifically for the purposes of this research.These various data are used to position, on both a descriptive andtheoretical level, the SAE vowel system.

In addition, and in the service of providing a careful reconstruction ofthe linguistic history of this variety, it offers a three-stagekoineization model which helps, in many respects, to illuminate therespective roles played by endogenous and exogenous factors in SAE'sdevelopment.

More generally, the analysis is focussed on rendering explicit the extentto which the synchronic status and diachronic development of SAE moregenerally, and SAE vowel quality more particularly, provides support for anumber of descriptive and theoretical frameworks, including those providedin Labov (1994), Torgersen and Kerswill (2004), Trudgill (2004) andSchneider (2003; 2007). With respect to these frameworks, and based on theresults of the analysis, it proposes an extension to Schneider's (2007)Dynamic Model, shows Trudgill's (2004) model of new-dialect formation to beinadequate in accounting for some of the SAE data, provides evidence thatSAE is a possibly imminent but 'conservative' member of Torgersen andKerswill's (2004) SECS-Shift and uses SAE data to question theapplicability of the SECS-Shift to FOOT-Fronting.

Furthermore, this thesis provides evidence that SAE has undergone anindexically-driven arrestment of the Diphthong and Southern Shifts and asubsequent and related diffusion of GenSAE values at the expense of BrSAEones. Similarly, it shows that SAE's possible participation in theSECS-Shift constitutes an effective chain-shift reversal 'from above'. Itstresses that, in order to understand such phenomena, recourse needs to bemade to a theory of indexicality that takes into account the uniquesociohistorical development of SAE and its speakers.

Lastly, the adoption of the three-stage koineization model mentioned abovehighlights the merits of considering both endogenous and exogenous factorsin the historical reconstruction of new-dialect formation and, for researchinto SAE in particular, strengthens the case for further investigation intothe possible effects of 19th-century Afrikaans/Dutch, Yiddish andnorth-of-English dialects on the formation of modern SAE.

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