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One place, two speech communities: differing responses to sound change in Mainstream and Aboriginal Australian English in a small rural town

  • Debbie Loakes , Janet Fletcher and Josh Clothier
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Speech Dynamics
This chapter is in the book Speech Dynamics

Abstract

In this chapter, we focus on production and perception behaviour in a small, relatively isolated rural location in Australia. We investigate speaker-listener behaviour in two different groups of language users, speakers of Mainstream Australian English (MAE), and of L1 Aboriginal English. Focusing on both a diachronic lowering of close front vowels, and a merger of /el/-/al/, this study addresses the possible outcomes of change(s) in speech communities where variability is high. Results show marked differences in how older and younger participants react to vowel stimuli in one contrast pair only, which we infer is related to frequency of the items specifically in these age groups. Results also show varietal differences between mainstream and Aboriginal English mainly in relation to the vowel merger, where Aboriginal listeners tend to have a merger of /el/-/al/ in perception, and MAE listeners tend not to. In production, Aboriginal English speakers also tended towards using more /el/-/al/ merger, and older MAE speakers used more merger than the younger MAE group. In this study, the degree of change observed appears slower and more limited than shown in other larger Australian towns. Drawing on work by Harrington and colleagues, we describe how our study sheds new light on the way that instability and asymmetry, conditions for sound change, may play out in completely different ways in communities. We argue that this is due to the unique circumstances of this isolated location and to population interaction in general.

Abstract

In this chapter, we focus on production and perception behaviour in a small, relatively isolated rural location in Australia. We investigate speaker-listener behaviour in two different groups of language users, speakers of Mainstream Australian English (MAE), and of L1 Aboriginal English. Focusing on both a diachronic lowering of close front vowels, and a merger of /el/-/al/, this study addresses the possible outcomes of change(s) in speech communities where variability is high. Results show marked differences in how older and younger participants react to vowel stimuli in one contrast pair only, which we infer is related to frequency of the items specifically in these age groups. Results also show varietal differences between mainstream and Aboriginal English mainly in relation to the vowel merger, where Aboriginal listeners tend to have a merger of /el/-/al/ in perception, and MAE listeners tend not to. In production, Aboriginal English speakers also tended towards using more /el/-/al/ merger, and older MAE speakers used more merger than the younger MAE group. In this study, the degree of change observed appears slower and more limited than shown in other larger Australian towns. Drawing on work by Harrington and colleagues, we describe how our study sheds new light on the way that instability and asymmetry, conditions for sound change, may play out in completely different ways in communities. We argue that this is due to the unique circumstances of this isolated location and to population interaction in general.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Contents V
  3. On the nature of speech dynamics: approaches to studying synchronic variation and diachronic change 1
  4. Part 1: Empirical perspectives on diachronic change
  5. Fifty years of monophthong and diphthong shifts in Mainstream Australian English 17
  6. Coarticulation guides sound change: an acoustic-phonetic study of real-time change in word-initial /l/ over four decades of Glaswegian 49
  7. The impact of automated phonetic alignment and formant tracking workflows on sound change measurement 89
  8. One place, two speech communities: differing responses to sound change in Mainstream and Aboriginal Australian English in a small rural town 117
  9. Prosodic change in 100 years: the fall of the rise-fall in an Albanian variety 145
  10. Part 2: Factors conditioning synchronic variation
  11. Control of larynx height in vowel production revisited: a real-time MRI study 175
  12. Sheila’s roses (are in the paddick): reduced vowels in Australian English 207
  13. The future of the queen: how to pronounce “König✶innen” ‘gender-neutrally’ in German 245
  14. Synchronic variation and diachronic change: mora-counting and syllable-counting dialects in Japanese 273
  15. Reconstructing the timeline of a consonantal change in a German dialect: evidence from agent-based modeling 307
  16. Part 3: Theoretical approaches at the interface between synchronic variation and diachronic change
  17. On (mis)aligned innovative perception and production norms 343
  18. Phonological patterns and dependency relations may arise from aerodynamic factors 369
  19. Actuation without production bias 395
  20. Understanding the role of broadcast media in sound change 425
  21. Connecting prosody and duality of patterning in diachrony, typology, phylogeny, and ontogeny 453
  22. Index 483
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110765328-005

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Contents V
  3. On the nature of speech dynamics: approaches to studying synchronic variation and diachronic change 1
  4. Part 1: Empirical perspectives on diachronic change
  5. Fifty years of monophthong and diphthong shifts in Mainstream Australian English 17
  6. Coarticulation guides sound change: an acoustic-phonetic study of real-time change in word-initial /l/ over four decades of Glaswegian 49
  7. The impact of automated phonetic alignment and formant tracking workflows on sound change measurement 89
  8. One place, two speech communities: differing responses to sound change in Mainstream and Aboriginal Australian English in a small rural town 117
  9. Prosodic change in 100 years: the fall of the rise-fall in an Albanian variety 145
  10. Part 2: Factors conditioning synchronic variation
  11. Control of larynx height in vowel production revisited: a real-time MRI study 175
  12. Sheila’s roses (are in the paddick): reduced vowels in Australian English 207
  13. The future of the queen: how to pronounce “König✶innen” ‘gender-neutrally’ in German 245
  14. Synchronic variation and diachronic change: mora-counting and syllable-counting dialects in Japanese 273
  15. Reconstructing the timeline of a consonantal change in a German dialect: evidence from agent-based modeling 307
  16. Part 3: Theoretical approaches at the interface between synchronic variation and diachronic change
  17. On (mis)aligned innovative perception and production norms 343
  18. Phonological patterns and dependency relations may arise from aerodynamic factors 369
  19. Actuation without production bias 395
  20. Understanding the role of broadcast media in sound change 425
  21. Connecting prosody and duality of patterning in diachrony, typology, phylogeny, and ontogeny 453
  22. Index 483
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