LIN 317 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: North American English, Phonological Change, Southern American English
2 Oct 2018
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Document Summary
If not, maybe we need to change our understanding of sound change. One example: the low back vowel merger. Key feature of the south is /ai/ monophthongization. But there are weird places were you have low back merger and /ai/ monophthongization. The diffusion of the /o ~ oh/ merger to appalachia is not limited to west. Virginia, but extends to northern kentucky as well. Aside from clarksburg, these cities are firmly included in the southern orbit on the basis of the monophthongization of /ay/ (p. 133) Like the midwest, but it includes appalachia. Sort of looks like a combination of features from both the north and south. And there"s some weird stuff going on in the mix. That dialects of north american english are becoming increasingly differentiated. Many say that everyone is just going to sound the same because of increased contact, larger contact with media, etc.
