Tag Archives: pronunciation

Jack Windsor Lewis

A month ago we were saddened by the news of the passing of Jack Windsor Lewis. I never managed to meet him inperson, we always seemed to be a year or so out of phase, from Stockholm in the 1950s … Continue reading

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Dating the New Open TRAP Sound Change in Southeast England

  Figure 1. The earlier closer TRAP, with DRESS and KIT compressed towards FLEECE. RP informant B born around 1900. Figure 2. The new open TRAP; F1 completely higher than 600Hz; DRESS and KIT are no longer compressed towards Fleece. … Continue reading

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19th century sound change in Kent: LOT

The distribution of LOT pronunciations by the seven informants. Most still had [a~ɑ]-like earlier pronunciations (O). Only two had as yet acquired the new pronunciation [ɔ] (N). The earlier 19th century popular pronunciation in Kent for LOT was [a~ɑ]. The … Continue reading

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19th century sound change in Kent: MOUTH

The distribution of MOUTH pronunciations by the eight informants. Four informants had acquired the new pronunciation [æɒ], [æ:] (N) or the partially new form [æʉ] (P). Four informants still had the earlier pronunciation [ɛʉ] (O). Alexander Ellis (1889, On Early … Continue reading

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19th century sound change in Kent: THOUGHT

The distribution of  THOUGHT by the eight informants: three had the earlier (O) pronunciation, while five had the new (N) pronunciation. THOUGHT subsumes NORTH and FORCE. The map shows that three informants still had the older [ɔ:]-like pronunciation, while five … Continue reading

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19th century sound change in Kent: TRAP

The distribution of the [æ]-like TRAP vowel by the eight informants: this is either the earlier timbre close to DRESS (O), or it is the new open timbre (N). Two informants still had the earlier pronunciation. The map shows that … Continue reading

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19th century sound change in Kent: GOAT

The distribution of GOAT pronunciations by the eight Kentish informants (each denoted by the place and year of birth). The timbre of GOAT was studied in the speech of eight informants, all born between 1865 and 1895. Seven informants exhibit … Continue reading

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19th century sound change in Kent: PRICE

The distribution of PRICE pronunciations by the seven informants. All but one had acquired the new pronunciation [ai] (N). The informant from Appledore in the south east still had the earlier pronunciation [ʌi] (O). The earlier 19th century popular pronunciation … Continue reading

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19th century sound change in Kent: FACE

Figure 1. The distribution of FACE pronunciations. All the informants had acquired the new [ɛi]-like FACE diphthong, indicating this is the earliest of the 19th century sound changes in Kent. All the informants have [ɛi], a new sound change that … Continue reading

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Vowel articulation: Tongue height and backing

An ever-present issue is tongue height and backness as a reference frame for vowel articulation. This is not new. The inadequacy of height and backness has been well known but largely disregarded for at least 85 years, since Russell (1928, … Continue reading

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