The TRAP-BATH split in RP: A linguistic index for English learners

James H. Yang

doi:10.1515/iral-2017-0156

Article

The TRAP-BATH split in RP: A linguistic index for English learners

James H. Yang

Published/Copyright: January 17, 2019

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From the journal International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching Volume 59 Issue 2

Abstract

Received Pronunciation (RP) holds prestige not only in the UK, but also in many Outer and Expanding Circle countries and, even in the US, but the TRAP-BATH split (TBS) in RP, which refers to the shift from the vowel /a/ to /ɑː/, has still remained ambiguous because this sound shift contains inconsistent realizations that occur in identical codas, as illustrated in such lexical pairs as class but gas, path but math, last but enthusiast. What makes this sound feature more complicated is sociolinguistic variation. Although earlier discoveries have enhanced our understanding of the TBS, neither a definitive word list nor lexical frequency are provided for learners to enunciate BATH words. To provide RP learners with a linguistic index to learn BATH lexical set, this study expanded Wells’s study by including additional 16 phonetic environments, which generated a total of 304 relevant words for examining their pronunciation defined by dictionaries. The findings show that 13 out of the 30 environments can trigger the TBS more than 50% of the time. In particular, seven of them can completely predict the TBS (over 91%), and one of them can fully do so (83%). This feature appears as a regular conditioned sound pattern if well-defined by its phonetic environments.

Keywords: socio-phonetics; English accents

Acknowledgements

This study was granted by Taiwan’s Ministry of Science and Technology (105-2410-H-224-030). The author would like to thank his assistants, Allen Hong, Yvonne Song, and Bruce Wang, for their help with the data collection and analysis. He is also very grateful for the anonymous reviews and suggestions, which have made all of the earlier revision efforts worthwhile and rewarding.

Appendix A: The TBS occurrence rates in different words.

#	-C	/ɑ:/	/a/	%	TP
1	θ#	bath, path		29	57
		lath	hath, math	14
		rath	strath	14
2	-ðə#	rather	gather	17	34
		lather	blather, fathom, slather	17
				0
3	-f#	calf, giraffe, graph, half, laugh, staff		27	41
		chaff, epitaph, quaff	caff, carafe, decaf, faff, gaff, gaffe, naff, raff, riffraff, pilaf	14
			chiffchaff, draff, staph	0
4	-ft#	craft, daft, draft, shaft		33	91
		graft, raft, aft, waft	kaftan	33
		haft, abaft, kraft		25
5	-ftə#	after, laughter, thereafter		50	100
		rafter, hereafter		33
		wafter		17
6	-fl#			0	0
			baffle, raffle, snaffle	0
				0
7	-f-		traffic, graphic	0	0
			caftan, hermaphrodite, kaftan	0
			naphtha	0
8	-lv#		valve	0	50
		calve, halve	salve	50
				0
9	-s#	bypass, class, glass, grass, pass	gas, mass	21	33
		brass, surpass	alas, amass, ass, crass, harass, has, lass, morass, sass, cuirass	8
		declass	admass, camas, strass, trass	4
10	-st#	blast, cast, contrast, fast, last, vast		29	62
		aghast, caste, mast, past	enthusiast, gymnast, iconoclast, lambast, pederast	19
		avast, flabbergast	bast, chiliast, clast	14
11	-stə#	disaster, master, plaster	pasta	30	60
		caster, pastor, blaster	aster, canasta	30
			raster	0
12	-st-		astronaut, drastic, fantastic, plastic	0	21
		bastard, ghastly, nasty, pasteurize, pastime, pastoral, plasterboard	asteroid, bastion, castanets, castigate, chastity, elastic, gastric, gymnastic, mastic, masticate, mastiff, mastitis, masturbate, monastic, pastel, procrastinate, sarcastic, scholastic, spastic	21
			mastodon, mastoid, onomastic	0
13	-sk#	ask, mask, task		37	100
		bask, cask, flask, masque		50
		casque		13
14	-sk-	basket	masculine	10	30
		casket, rascal	ascot, emasculate, gasket, mascot, masquerade, vascular	20
				0
15	-sp#	clasp, gasp, grasp		50	83
		hasp, rasp	asp	33
				0
16	-sp-		aspect, aspirin	0	20
		exasperate	aspen, asphalt, aspic, aspirant, diaspora, jasper	20
				0
17	-sl#	castle	hassle	20	20
			tassel, vassal	0
			passel	0
18	-sn#	fasten		10	100
				0
				0
				0
19	-s-		classic, passage, passenger	0	0
			blasphemy, chassis, gasoline	0
				0
20	-ns#	advance, chance, dance, enhance, glance, stance	finance, romance	33	61
		lance, mischance, perchance, prance, trance	expanse, manse	28
			nance	0
21	-ns-	answer, chancellor	fancy, handsome, transfer, transport, translate	14	28
		chancel, lancet	cancel, cancer, nancy, ransom, transom	14
				0
22	-nt#	aunt, grant, plant	ant	19	32
		chant, slant	adamant, cant, decant, descant, extant, gallivant, pant, rant, recant, scant	13
			brant, courant	0
23	-nt-	advantage	fantastic, fantasy, romantic	7	21
		plantation	anti, banter, canter, mantle, pantomime, phantom	7
		chanter	antic, panty	7
24	-nʃ#			0	100
		tranche		33
		planche, revanche		67
25	-nʃən#		expansion, mansion	0	0
			scansion	0
				0
26	-ntʃ#	branch		20	100
		blanch, ranch, avalanche		60
		stanch		20
27	stressed-m-nd#	comm’and, dem’and		50	100
		rem’and, reprim’and		50
			(’summand, ’confirmand)	0
28	-nd#		band, brand, expand, grand, hand, land, stand, strand	0	0
			ampersand, candy, gland, rand	0
			multiplicand	0
29	-nd-		grandson, handle	0	22
		chandler, slander	badlands, gander, panda, shandy	22
			glissando	0
30	-mpl#	example, sample	ample	40	40
			amplify, trample	0
				0

Note: Infrequent words are marked in italics, while difficult words are marked in boldface.

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Published Online: 2019-01-17

Published in Print: 2021-06-25

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https://doi.org/10.1515/iral-2017-0156

Keywords for this article

socio-phonetics; English accents