Regional variation in the allophones of CANADIAN ENGLISH

Authors

  • Charles Boberg Department of Linguistics, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 1A7, Canada

Keywords:

Students, Canadian english, Formant trajectory, Nova Scotia, Nuclear measurement, Phonetic level, Regional variation, Undergraduate students, Word lists

Abstract

A study that was conducted to examine regional variation in the allophones of Canadian English is presented. The data below are from word list productions elicited during recorded socio-linguistic interviews with 86 undergraduate students from every region of Canada. The word lists, which contained 145 words representing all of the vowels of English in a range of allophonic contexts, were analyzed acoustically using Kay Elemetrics' CSL 4400 system, with single-point nuclear measurements of F1 and F2 taken at the F1 maximum or at a point of inflection in F2 representing the central tendency of the formant trajectories. While there is no evidence of an analogous phonemic split in the Maritimes, raised vowels in bad and sad do resemble the American pattern at the phonetic level, and may be a relic of an older, colonial pattern brought to the region by the Loyalists, who were the most important element in the initial English-speaking settlement of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

Additional Files

Published

2011-09-01

How to Cite

1.
Boberg C. Regional variation in the allophones of CANADIAN ENGLISH. Canadian Acoustics [Internet]. 2011 Sep. 1 [cited 2025 Feb. 15];39(3):170-1. Available from: https://jcaa.caa-aca.ca/index.php/jcaa/article/view/2465

Issue

Vol. 39 No. 3 (2011)

Section

Proceedings of the Acoustics Week in Canada

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