Variation in stop consonant voicing in two regional varieties of American English.

Abstract

This study is an acoustic investigation of the nature and extent of consonant voicing of the stop /b/ in two dialectal varieties of American English spoken in south-central Wisconsin and western North Carolina. The stop /b/ occurred at the juncture of two words such as small bids, in a position between two voiced sonorants, i.e. the liquid /l/ and a vowel. Twenty women participated, ten representing the Wisconsin and ten the North Carolina variety, respectively. Significant dialectal differences were found in the voicing patterns. The Wisconsin stop closures were usually not fully voiced and terminated in a complete silence followed by a closure release whereas North Carolina speakers produced mostly fully voiced closures. Further dialectal differences included the proportion of closure voicing as a function of word emphasis. For Wisconsin speakers, the proportion of closure voicing was smallest when the word was emphasized and it was greatest in non-emphatic positions. For North Carolina speakers, the degree of word emphasis did not have an effect on the proportion of closure voicing. The results suggest different mechanisms by which closure voicing is maintained in these two dialects, pointing to active articulatory maneuvers in North Carolina speakers and passive in Wisconsin speakers.

Articulation rate across dialect, age, and gender

“…It might be the case that some other dialect-specific segmental properties play a role here. So far, we have found significant effects of vowel duration between the Northern and Southern speech (Jacewicz et al, 2007) and significant differences in stop closure durations, Wisconsin closures being longer than North Carolina closures (Jacewicz et al, 2008). However, these findings are far from making conclusive statements about the dialect-specific features with regard to articulation rate.…”

Effects of obstruent voicing on vowel F0: Implications for laryngeal realism

“…Far from being exceptional, we suspect that such systems are actually quite common. Given the multidimensional and highly redundant acoustic space in which laryngeal contrasts are realized, however, it is unsurprising that different languages might simply "choose" to amplify or privilege different acoustic parameters or combinations thereof (Jacewicz et al 2009). In our view, a fundamental problem in the way many phonologists think about cases like these is the persistent belief that some phonetic properties are somehow more "phonological" while others are "purely phonetic".…”

Rate effects on Southern American English VOT

“…Rather, the data for SAE were comparable to data reported for Dutch, which is considered a true voice language, in which 75% of initial lenis stops were reported as prevoiced (van Alphen & Smits 2004). It should also be noted that participants in the study by Flege (1982) were recruited in Alabama (SAE) and the Westbury (1979) Additionally, considerable differences in voicing were found between speakers from Wisconsin and North Carolina (Jacewicz et al 2009). North Carolina speakers produced considerably more voicing, with 73% of bilabial lenis tokens voiced throughout the entire closure and an average of 92% of the closure voiced.…”

“…However, recent research (Hunnicutt & Morris 2016, Jacewicz, Fox, & Lyle 2009 indicates that in Southern American English (SAE), the lenis category of stops is produced with prevoicing rather than with short-lag VOT. This study examines the effects of speaking rate on initial stops to determine if SAE lenis stops might be specified for privative voice, or if the prevoicing noted in the literature is an example of contrastive emphasis.…”