Consonantal Sound Change in American English

Erscheinungsjahr 2023
ISBN: 978-1-316-51272-2
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 180 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 499 g

Reihe: Studies in English Language

Research on sound change often focuses on vowels, yet consonantal sound change also offers fascinating insights into language development and variation. This pioneering book provides a detailed investigation of consonantal sound change in English, by analyzing a large corpus of specifically designed field recordings from Austin, Texas. It offers one of the most in-depth analyses of /str/-retraction to date, drawing comparisons with studies of change in the distinguishing phonetic features of other varieties of English, and with studies of /str/-retraction in other Germanic languages. It further deepens our understanding of sound change by including qualitative data to position the sound change in the social reality of Austin, showing that specific sound changes are universally driven by age, gender and ethnicity. The results provide a testing ground for models of sociolinguistic and sound change, and highlight the importance of the social fabric of language in modeling language change.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Ahlers, Wiebke H

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Phonetik, Phonologie, Prosodie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Introduction; 2. Phonetic and phonological background for sibilant analysis; 3. Sound change; 4. Methodology and data; 5. Results; 6. Discussion; 7. Conclusion; Glossary; References; Index.

Über Autor(innen)

Ahlers, Wiebke H
Wiebke Ahlers is a postdoctoral researcher of English Linguistics at TU Dortmund University. She is a Fulbright scholar.