Penny Eckert's Web Page
Vowel Shifts in California and the Detroit Suburbs
California Vowels
/i/ The vowel in
him, sit, and bid is moving in two
directions.
Before
ng, it shifts towards the vowel
in
beam, bean
Example:
think sounds
like
theenk
Before other consonants, it shifts towards the vowel
in
hem, set, and bed .
Example:
did
sounds more like
dead
/e/ The vowel in
bed, set, send is shifting towards the vowels in
bad, sat, sand .
Example:
friend
sounds more like
frand
/uh/ The vowel in
but, rust, bun is shifting towards the vowels in
bet, rest, Ben .
Example:
fun
sounds more like
fen
/ae/ The vowel in
hat, hand, pass is splitting into two varants.
Before nasal consonants (
n, m, ng) it becomes a diphthong, and
the first part of the diphthong is shifting towards /iy/
Example:
stand sounds
more like
stee-and
Before other consonants, as in
hat, rack, cast, it shifts in the other direction, towards the
vowel in
hot, rock, cost
Example:
that sounds
more like
thot
/o/ The distinction between the vowels in
cot and
caught,
Don and
Dawn has been lost. The merged vowel is pronounced
between the two.
Example:
mom sounds
more like
mawm
/uw/ The vowel in
boot, soon, dude is shifting towards the vowel in
bit, sin, did. Usually, it takes the form of a diphthong [iw]
Example:
move sounds
more like
mi-oov
/U/ The vowel in
look, put, could is shifting towards the vowels in
luck (sometimes
lick),
putt (sometimes
pit),
cud (sometimes
kid ).
Example:
brook sounds more
like
bruck
/ow/ The vowel in
boat, tone, ghost becomes a diphthong, and the
first part of the diphthong is shifting towards the
vowel in
bet, ten, guest.
Example:
goes sounds
more like
ge-oz
***For more information on the vowels of dialects in the
US, see William Labov's
Atlas of
North American English
Spectrograms for the vowels in
stand and
that.
Note that there are three dark bands, or
formants. (These are clearest in the spectrogram on
the right.) One can characterize vowels on the basis of the frequencies of
the lower two formants.
The horizontal line in the spectrogram to the left shows the first
(lowest) formant,
since it is less distinct. The red
vertical lines show the area of the vowel where one would measure the
formants.
(The measurements for these two vowels are shown in the
second vowel plot below).
stand
that
***These spectrograms were made with
Praat
software developed by Paul Boersma and David Weeninck of the Institute of
Phonetic Sciences at the University of Amsterdam.
Plotting the frequency (in hertz, or cycles per second) of each of the first
two formants, as below, yields a picture very much like vowel space in the
mouth - what is commonly referred to as the
vowel triangle).
Below are two vowel plots, showing the splitting of /ae/. Both plots show
the position of /ae/ before nasals (
stand, ham,
hang) as empty squares, and /ae/ elsewhere (
laugh, that, had)
as black squares. /iy/ (
feet, me, mean) is also shown (black
circles) to show the relation of pre-nasal
occurrences to it.
The two plots are of the same girl in two different situations. In the
first, she is talking to me in an interview situation. In the second, she
is engaged in "drama" - an intense conversation with her friends about
friendship intrigue.
Interview Speech. Note that the empty squares
are higher than the black squares:
Drama Speech. Note how the empty squares and the black squares have drawn
apart, so that the empty squares are up by /iy/ and the black squares have
moved down:
Below is a vowel plot showing the shifting of /uw/ (
new,
food). This vowel is represented as black circles with arrows. When /uw/ is followed
by /l/ as in
school, it does not shift, but remains where we expect
it to be. This plot shows that other occurrences of /uw/, however,
overlap with the vowel in
mister (empty circles) and approach the
vowel in
me
(empty circles with arrows).
***These plots were made with
Plotnik software, developed
by William Labov of the Department of Linguistics at the University of
Pennsylvania.
Detroit Area Vowels
The Northern Cities Shift is a rotation of the low and mid vowels:
/ae/ The vowel in
bad, laugh diphthongizes, and the first part of
the diphthong approaches the vowel in
made
Example:
laughs at sounds
more
like
lafes ate
/o/ The vowel in
top, bottle shifts towards the vowel in
laugh
Example:
on sounds
more
like
Ann
/oh/ The vowel in
caught, dog shifts towards the vowel in
top,
bottle
Example:
all sounds
more
like
doll
/uh/ The vowel in
lunch, tough shifts towards the vowel in
all,
caught
Example:
fun sounds
more
like
fawn
/e/ The vowel in
flesh, ten shifts towards the vowel in
flush,
ton
Example:
seventeen sounds
more
like
suventeen
/ay/ The first part of the diphthong in
right shifts towards the
vowel in
all, caught
Example:
typing sounds
more
like
toyping