McCarthy, Owen (2012) A sociophonetic study of the realization of word- final velar plosives by female pupils in a Glasgow high school. MPhil(R) thesis http://theses.gla.ac.uk/3331/ Copyright and moral rights for this thesis are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. Glasgow Theses Service http://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] A SOCIOPHONETIC STUDY OF THE REALIZATION OF WORD- FINAL VELAR PLOSIVES BY FEMALE PUPILS IN A GLASGOW HIGH SCHOOL By Owen McCarthy Submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of M.Phil (R) Department of English Language Faculty of Arts University of Glasgow September 2011 1 Abstract This study analyses the realization of word-final /k/ in read and casual speech by female pupils in a Glasgow high school, specifically focusing on the realization of word final velar ejectives. The literature on ejectives in varieties of English is still at a very early stage and much of what we know of them is mainly anecdotal or comes from accepted, yet often unsubstantiated statements: they are more prominent word-finally, they usually do not follow voiceless sounds, they are found in varieties of Northern English. My research aims to identify the phonetic and linguistic factors that promote ejective use and to also gain a better understanding of who are using ejectives more and what social factors this depends on. In doing this I found that there is more going on than just independent factors at work. Instead the social factors of age and ethnicity seem to play crucial roles in ejective realization. Overall this study found some intriguing initial results showing that ejective realization of /k/ is now very common in these Glaswegian girls. It seems as if this represents a real-time change in Glasgow – though more data/study is needed to establish this. 2 CONTENTS Chapter 1 Introduction_________________________________ 11 1.1 Background ___ 11 1.2 Research Questions 12 1.3 Thesis outline 12 Chapter 2 14 2.1 Fundamentals of sound articulation 14 2.2 What are ejectives? 17 2.3 Earlier descriptions of ejectives 18 2.4 Ejective distribution 19 2.5 Variation in ejectives: Stiff and Slack ejectives 21 2.6 Ejectives in varieties of English 24 2.7 Linguistic constraints on ejective distribution - where they occur 28 2.8 Are ejectives increasing in English stops? 29 2.9 Ejectives and sociophonetic variation 29 2.9.1 Variationist sociolinguistics 29 2.9.2 Observing language variation and change 30 2.9.2.1 Real time change 32 2.9.3 Adolescence and language change 32 2.9.4 Gender 33 2.10 Ethnicity 34 Summary 35 Chapter 3 Methodology 36 3.1 Overview 36 3.2 Background to school 36 3.2.1 Issues to consider for the research 36 3.3 Glasgow: Location and variety of English 37 3.3.1 The stop system in Glasgow 37 3.3.2 The realisation of word-final /k/ 38 3.4 Phonetic Context 38 3 3.5 Preliminaries to participant selection 39 3.5.1 Selection of participants 39 3.6 Sample size 41 3.6.1 Stratification of sample 41 3.7 Social category 42 3.7.1 Ethnicity 42 3.7.1 Background 42 3.7.2 Participant sample and DEPCAT 44 3.7.3 Organisation of DEPCATs for analysis 44 3.7.4 Overview of participant sample 45 3.8 Data Collection 46 3.9 Tasks 47 3.9.1 Reading lists 47 3.9.2 Reading list recording 47 3.9.3 Map-task 48 3.10 Auditory analysis 51 3.10.1 Extracting and coding data 51 3.10.2 Transcribing data 52 3.10.3 Decisions on representing ejective variants 53 3.11 Preliminaries to data analysis 54 3.12 Summary 54 Chapter 4 Results 56 4.1 Chapter overview 56 4.1.1 Overall range of phonetic variation for /k/ 56 4.1.2 Variant categories for /k/ 58 4.1.3 Summary of range of variation for /k/ 59 4.2 Style 59 4.3 Phonetic Context 60 4.3.1 Read Speech 61 4.3.2 Casual speech 62 4 4.3.3 Realization of /k/ according to phonetic context and style 64 4.4 Position in Turn 65 4.5 Age 66 4.5.1 Age and style 67 4.6 Social category 68 4.6.1 Social category and style 68 4.7 Ethnicity 69 4.7.1 Ethnicity and style 70 4.8 Summary of main effects 71 4.9 Phonetic context and social factors 72 4.9.1 Phonetic Context and Age 72 4.9.2 Phonetic Context and Social Category 73 4.9.3 Phonetic Context and Ethnicity 74 4.9.4 Summary of findings for Phonetic Context 74 4.10 Position in Turn and social factors 75 4.10.1 Position in Turn and Age 75 4.10.2 Position in Turn and Social category 76 4.10.3 Position in Turn and Ethnicity 77 4.10.4 Summary of findings for Position in Turn 78 4.11 Social factors and Style 79 4.11.1 Age and Style 79 4.11.2 Age and Ethnicity 80 4.11.3 Age and Social Category 81 4.11.4 Style, Ethnicity, and Age 81 4.11.5 Summary of Social factors and style 82 Results – Summary 83 4.12.1 The variants used for /k/ overall 83 4.12.2 The distribution of variation according to cluster context 83 4.12.3 The distribution of variation according to preceding vowel context 83 4.12.5 The distribution of variation according to position in turn 84 4.12.5 The distribution of variation according to year group in school 84 4.12.6 The distribution of variation according to ethnicity 85 4.12.7 The distribution of variation according to social category 85 5 Chapter 5 Discussion 86 5.1 Discussion on initial questions regarding distribution of /k/ 86 5.2 Ejective realization of word-final /k/ in Glaswegian 86 5.3 Specific research questions 87 Chapter 6: Conclusions 94 References 97 Appendix 1 106 Appendix 2 108 6 CONTENTS TABLES TABLE 1 The principle airstream mechanisms_____________________________ 15 TABLE 2 Summary of the general categorization of ejectives________________________ 22 TABLE 3 Target tokens for tasks across phonetic context ___________________________ 39 TABLE 4 Comparison between study sample and distribution of 2001 Carstairs Scores for Glasgow city (adapted from 2001 report)_______________________________________ 44 TABLE 5 Demographics of pupils who took part in the study ______________ 45 TABLE 6 Auditory continuum of 12 variant types__________________________53 TABLE 7 Overall variants of /k/ produced by the speakers __________________________57 TABLE 8 Overall raw token count for all variants_________________________________ 57 TABLE 9 Raw total and percentages for variation overall __________________ 59 7 Contents Figures FIGURE 1 Vocal Tract _______________________________________________________ 16 FIGURE 2 The sequence of events that occur in a glottalic egressive velar stop [k’] ______________________________________________18 FIGURE 3 Percentage of glottal stop variant for post tonic /t/ in adults, 15-year-olds 10-year-olds in three social classes in Glasgow __________________________ 31 FIGURE 4 Deprivation scores across Scotland _____________________________________43 FIGURE 5 Example of coding for Read speech ____________________________________ 52 FIGURE 5.1 Example of coding for Casual speech __________________________________52 8 Contents of Charts CHART 1 Overall distribution of variants in Read and Casual speech___________________58 CHART 2 Total distribution of /k/ variants across style______________________________60 CHART 3 Overall phonetic context for all variants_________________________________ 61 CHART 3.1 Distribution of /k/ across consonant cluster _____________________________62 CHART 3.2 Distributions of variants across clusters and vowels______________________ 64 CHART 3.3 Realization of /k/ according to cluster context and styles___________________65 CHART 3.3 Vowel differences across style ________________________________ 65 CHART 4 Distribution of variants across turn_____________________________________ 66 CHART 5 Overall comparison between age ______________________________________67 CHART 5.1 Age and style ___________________________________________________ 67 CHART 6 Comparison between DEPCATs _______________________________________69 CHART 6.1 Distribution of variants: social category and style ________________________ 69 CHART 7 Distribution of variants across all tokens: G v GA speakers __________________ 69 CHART 7.1 Distribution of variants: ethnicity and style_____________________________ 70 CHART 8 Distribution of variants for consonant cluster _____________________________ 72 CHART 8.1Cluster context and social category____________________________________ 74 CHART 8.2 Phonetic context and ethnicity ______________________________________ 74 CHART 9 Position in turn and age ______________________________________________76 CHART 9.2 Position in turn and social category ___________________________________77 CHART 9.3 Position in turn and ethnicity________________________________________ 78 CHART 10 Age and style ____________________________________________________80 CHART 10.1 Age and ethnicity _______________________________________________80 CHART 10.2 Age and social category ________________________________________ 81 CHART 10.3 Style, ethnicity and age ___________________________________________ 82 9 Acknowledgements Firstly, I wish to thank my supervisor, Dr Jane Stuart-Smith, for her expert guidance and advice during my studies and research. Her generosity and patience was greatly appreciated and I am indebtheted followingto her for the knowledge she has shared with me. I would also like to thank staff in the English Language Department who all helped me on my first steps in these studies: Dr Jennifer Smith, Dr Rachel Smith, and Professor Jeremy J. Smith. This thesis would not have been possible without the dedication and cooperation of the pupils in my class and I appreciate all the free time they have given up to help me with my research.