Past Event

\tɹ\ and \dɹ\ in North American English: Phonologization of a Coarticulatory Effect

This talk presents research from an investigation into an observed sound pattern in North American English: the affrication of /t/ and /d/ before /ɹ/. This pattern, which has been reported in many dialects of English, results in words like tree and dream being pronounced like [tʃɹi] and [dʒɹim]. While there has been no experimental research investigating this phenomenon, it is often referred to quite matter-of-factly in the literature. It has even been implicated in another (well-documented) sound pattern: s-retraction, which is observed in many English dialects, from North America to New Zealand.

The first phase of this research, an Apparent Time Study, investigates whether the phenomenon of /tɹ/ and /dɹ/ affrication in English is a sound change in progress using acoustic data from interviews conducted with English speakers born and raised in Raleigh, North Carolina.

The second phase of research, a Production Study, examines the interaction between articulators during speakers’ productions of/t/and/d/before/ɹ/, and/t d tʃ dʒ/before vowels. Are speakers producing [t]s and [d]s coarticulated with [ɹ] that, e.g., for aerodynamic reasons, simply sound like affricates, or have speakers adopted new articulatory targets before /ɹ/, suggesting phonologization of a coarticulatory effect?

The final phase of research, a Perception Study, explores how listeners categorize /t/s before /ɹ/. It was reasoned that if speakers are producing affricated variants of /t/, and listeners are perceiving that affrication, listeners may categorize the variant as CH rather than T in a forced-choice spelling task.

This event is sponsored by the School of Linguistics and Language Studies