Ejectives in Scottish English: A social perspective

Abstract

This paper presents the results of an analysis of the realization of word-final /k/ in a sample of read and casual speech by 28 female pupils from a single-sex Glaswegian high school. Girls differed in age, socioeconomic background, and ethnicity. Ejectives were the most usual variant for /k/ in both speech styles, occurring in the speech of every pupil in our sample. Our narrow auditory analysis revealed a continuum of ejective production, from weak to intense stops. Results from multinomial logistic regression show that ejective production is promoted by phonetic, linguistic and interactional factors: ejectives were used more in read speech, when /k/ occurred in the /-ŋk/ cluster (e.g. tank), and when the relevant word was either at the end of a clause or sentence, or in turn-final position. At the same time, significant interactions between style, and position in turn, and the social factors of age and ethnicity, show that the use of ejectives by these girls is subject to a fine degree of sociolinguistic control, alongside interactional factors. Finally, cautious comparison of these data with recordings made in 1997 suggests that these results may also reflect a sound change in progress, given the very substantial real-time increase in ejective realizations of /k/ in Glasgow over the past fourteen years.

A phonetically versatile contrast: Pulmonic and glottalic voicelessness in Scottish English obstruents and voice quality

“…Gordeeva 2007). Ejectives in modern English are, moreover, so conspicuous that anecdotal observation and awareness of their use seem to have far outpaced academic study, but the research literature is now, however, exploring its socio-linguistic meaning (McCarthy & Stuart-Smith 2013). Perhaps therefore it is not so surprising that we can report the systematic (non-epiphenomenal) ways in which another laryngeal toy, the glottalic stop, is being played with by speakers of English.…”

“…It is an open question whether this rearrangement of glottalisation timing in British English varieties is segmentally epiphenomenal (Wells 1982, Ogden 2009); or alternatively, epiphenomenal due to phonotactic influences, as in German, where ejectives are a result of the higher air pressure building up in the supralaryngeal cavity during temporal overlap of a final stop and glottalisation of the next vowel (Simpson 2007, in press); or whether this is an allophone (or free variant) emerging as part of the phonetic system, possibly as a para- or sociolinguistic marker (see McCarthy & Stuart-Smith 2013 for the latter).…”

Ki(ng) in the north: Effects of duration, boundary, and pause on post-nasal [ɡ]-presence

“…We can also turn to an entirely different process, of voiceless stop ejectivization, in search for possible explanations. Ejectivization of the English voiceless plosive set /p, t, k/ has been attested by many scholars (Fabricius, 2000;Gordeeva & Scobbie, 2013;Ogden, 2009) and has been said to be increasing over time for /k/, for which it is most frequent (O. McCarthy & Stuart-Smith, 2013). In the same paper, O. McCarthy and Stuart-Smith explore the factors conditioning /k/-ejectivization in speakers of Glasgow English, and find that it is favoured not only phrase-finally but also when preceded by a nasal consonant.…”

Glottalisation of word-final stops in Australian English unstressed syllables

“…Similarly, we will not focus here on ejective realisations of stops (i.e. glottalic egressive stops), a phenomenon that is attested in Scottish English (Gordeeva & Scobbie 2013, McCarthy & Stuart-Smith 2013. However, glottalisation in BrE is not limited to alveolar stops; all of the voiceless stops /p t k/ as well as the voiceless affricate /*/ can be glottalised (Roach 1973), though variation exists among regional British dialects.…”