Weakening resistance

Progress toward the low back merger in New York State

Dados Bibliográficos

ID12233669
AutoresAaron J Dinkin (0000-0002-2097-4019, Swarthmore College, autor correspondente)
Ano2011
Volume23
Fascículo3
Páginas315-345
Data de publicação2011-10-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoLanguage Variation and Change (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0954-3945 • E-ISSN: 1469-8021
EditoraCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0954394511000147
OpenAlexW2198942550
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas18
Referências citadas7

This paper examines the status of the low back caught-cot merger in Upstate New York. Most of this region is subject to the Northern Cities Shift (NCS) and therefore, according to Labov, Ash, and Boberg (2006), ostensibly “resists” the spread of this merger. It is found that the phonology of this region is indeed trending toward the merger in apparent time, in terms of both phonetic distance between the two phonemes and speakers' explicit judgments. It is argued that the fronting of the cot vowel in the NCS region is not sufficient to withstand the spread of the merger because fronting a low vowel is a “reversible” sound change (Labov, 2010). It is further argued that the expansion of a merger to new communities may take place indirectly, through launching a sound change in the direction of merger rather than causing merger to take place immediately in the new community

Linguistics · Phonology · Resistance (ecology · Sociology · Sound change · State (computer science · Subject (documents · Vowel · Computer Science · History · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Multilingual Education and Policy · Philosophy · Phonetics and Phonology Research