The Vowels of California English before /r/, /!/, and /r\/ by Joshua Samuel Guenter B.A. (University of Oregon) 1992 M.A. (University of California, Berkeley) 1994 A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics in the GRADUATE DIVISION of the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. BERKELEY Committee in charge: Professor John J. Ohala, Chair Professor Gary Holland Professor James M atiso ff Professor Thomas Shannon Spring 2000 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The Vowels of California English before /r/, /l/, and /q/ © Copyright 2000 by Joshua Samuel Guenter Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Table of Contents List of Figures .................................................................................................... v ii List of Tables ...................................................................................................... xi List of Abbreviations and Symbols ............................................................. x ii Acknowledgments ............................................................................................x iii C hapter 1: Introduction ...................................................................................1 C hapter 2: Historical Background ..................................................................16 2.1. Introduction ................................................................................... 16 2.2. The Changes ....................................................................................21 2.2.1. Deletion of Short Vowels .............................................23 2.2.2. Assimilatory Changes ................................................... 26 2.2.3. Middle English Long High Vowels ............................ 30 2.3. Recent Mergers .............................................................................35 2.4. Summary of Changes ...................................................................36 2.5. Changes to the Phonological System ....................................... 38 C hapter 3: The Problem ..................................................................................41 3.1. Criteria for Deciding Mono- vs. Biphonemicity .........................42 3.1.1. Trubetzkoy's Rules .................................................................. 45 3.1.2. Other Criteria ........................................................................... 53 3.1.3. Evaluation of the RGDs According to the Criteria 55 3.2. Past Phonological Analyses of the RGDs .....................................62 3.2.1. Syntagmatic Treatments ......................................................64 3.2.1.1. Tense Vowel Treatments .......................................... 65 i Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Blo o m fie ld 1933 .......................................................................... 65 T eeter 1966 ..................................................................................... 66 H arris 1 994 ...................................................................................68 H a m m o n d 1999 ..............................................................................72 3.2.1.2. Lax Vowel Treatments ...................................................7 3 Bronstein 1960 ..............................................................................73 Kenyon & Knott 1 953 .................................................................7 3 L ehiste 1964 ................................................................................... 74 A k m a jia n e t a l . 1 9 95 ................................................................76 3-2.1.3. Archiphonemic Treatments: .......................................... 7 7 3.2.1.4. Arbitrary Treatments .......................................................7 9 3-2.2. Diphthongal Treatments: ............................................................81 3 2.2.1. Monophonemic Treatments: .......................................... 82 De Camp 1945 .................................................................................82 3-2.2.2 "Glide-Slot" Analyses .........................................................8 4 T r a g e r &c Bloch 1941 .................................................................84 Kahn 1980 ........................................................................................87 V eatch 1991....................................................................................89 3 2.3. Other Treatments ............................................................................ 93 3 3. W hat Needs to Be Determined: ............................................................ 9 5 Chapter 4: Vowels before / l / ................................................................................. 10 1 4.1. Introduction .................................................................................................. 10 1 4.2. Comparison of /!/ to /r /..........................................................................103 4.3. W hat Needs to be Determined .......................................................110 4.4. Past Phonological Analyses................................................................. 111 ii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Chapter 5: Vowels before / r)/ .......................................................................114 Chapter 6: Acoustic Analysis ....................................................................... 12 1 6.1. Speech M aterial ................................................................................12 1 6.1.1. Speakers ................................................................................... 12 1 6.1.2. Data.............................................................................................122 6.1.3. Recording and Measurements .............................................. 126 6.2. Vowels before / r / .............................................................................132 6.2.1. Formant Dynamics (Line Graphs) .......................................132 6.2.2. Ranges of Allophony (Scatter Graphs) .............................. 142 6.2.3. Conclusions: Vowels before / r / ........................................... 164 6.3. Vowels before / I / .............................................................................165 6.31. Phonetic Classification of Post-vocalic / l / ....................166 6.3.2. Existence of Stressed Syllabic / l / ....................................168 6.3.3- Mergers of Vowels before / l/ ............................................ 169 6.3-4. Acoustic Categorization of Vowels before / l/ ................174 6.3.4.1. Formant Dynamics (Line Graphs) ............................ 175 6.3.4.2. Ranges of Allophony (Scatter Graphs) ...................194 6.3.4.3. Conclusion: Vowels before / l / ...................................196 6.3.5- Syllabicity of /diphthong-1/ Sequences ..........................197 6.3 6. Absence of Glides after Tense Vowels before / l / ........202 6.4. Vowels before /q / ........................................................................... 205 6.4.1. Formant Dynamics (Line Graphs) ..................................... 206 6.4.2. Range of Allophony (Scatter Graphs) ..............................219 6.4.3- Conclusion: Vowels before /q / ...........................................22 1 Chapter 7: Psycholinguistic Evidence ........................................................ 230 iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 7.1. Introduction ...................................................................................... 230 7.2. The Experiment .................................................................................234 7.2.1. Expectations ............................................................................ 254 7.3. Results and Discussion ..................................................................... 255 7.31. Control Sets ............................................................................256 7.3.2. Set R ..........................................................................................262 [ I r l Pairs........................................................................................ 262 (Erl P a irs....................................................................................... 265 [Or] P airs....................................................................................... 267 [ar] Pairs......................................................................................... 269 [A r] P a irs...................................................................................... 271 7.3.3. Diphthongs ...............................................................................272 7.3.4. Set NG ....................................................................................... 275 <ong> Pairs .................................................................................... 275 <ung> Pairs .................................................................................... 276 <ing> Pairs ..................................................................................... 277 <eng> Pairs ...................................................................................