Abstract
This paper aims to explore the use of the tap allophone [ɾ] in Received Pronunciation (RP) in word-internal and linking /r/ contexts over three decades (1940s–1960s) and considering three age cohorts (<35 years old, 35–54 years old, and ≥55 years old). A spoken corpus of formal register materials was compiled to conduct further perceptual and acoustic analysis and classify the articulation of /r/ into tap versus no tap. Results show a decreasing tendency of tap production across decades, and the initial stage of its replacement by the approximant variant. From a sociolinguistic perspective, tapped /r/ may have potentially changed its status, from an indicator to a marker. The fact that the tap allophone has become a sociolinguistic marker can encourage future research on intra-speaker variation. Women and middle-aged speakers (35–54 years old) are the ones leading this sound change, opting for the innovative approximant. This may be due to professional pressures or aspects of social identity, yet further research is needed. Furthermore, the word-internal context seems to favour the production of taps, which could be due to the general low frequency of linking /r/ and the formal register of the materials.
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© 2023 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Editorial 2023
- Research Articles
- Tapped /r/ in RP: a corpus-based sociophonetic study across the twentieth century
- Revisiting English written VP-ellipsis and VP-substitution: a dependency-based analysis
- Agreeing objects in Zulu can be indefinite and non-specific
- On the semantics of (negated) approximative kaada in Classical Arabic: a case for embedded exhaustification
- Imperatives as persuasion strategies in political discourse
- Primate origins of discourse-managing gestures: the case of hand fling
- Basic word order typology revisited: a crosslinguistic quantitative study based on UD and WALS
- The effect of L2 German on grammatical gender access in L1 Polish: proficiency matters
- Validation of two measures for assessing English vocabulary knowledge on web-based testing platforms: brief assessments
- Validation of two measures for assessing English vocabulary knowledge on web-based testing platforms: long-form assessments
- Cerebral asymmetries in the processing of opaque compounds in L1 Polish and L2 English
- Are preschool children sensitive to the function of accessibility markers? A visual world study with German-speaking three- to four-year-olds
- Sensory experience ratings (SERs) for 1,130 Chinese words: relationships with other semantic and lexical psycholinguistic variables
- A corpus-based study of quoi in French native speech
- The overlooked effect of amplitude on within-speaker vowel variation
- Contextualized word senses: from attention to compositionality
- Words of scents: a linguistic analysis of online perfume reviews
- Constraction: a tool for the automatic extraction and interactive exploration of linguistic constructions
- The Red Hen Anonymizer and the Red Hen Protocol for de-identifying audiovisual recordings
- Novel metaphor and embodiment: comprehending novel synesthetic metaphors
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Editorial 2023
- Research Articles
- Tapped /r/ in RP: a corpus-based sociophonetic study across the twentieth century
- Revisiting English written VP-ellipsis and VP-substitution: a dependency-based analysis
- Agreeing objects in Zulu can be indefinite and non-specific
- On the semantics of (negated) approximative kaada in Classical Arabic: a case for embedded exhaustification
- Imperatives as persuasion strategies in political discourse
- Primate origins of discourse-managing gestures: the case of hand fling
- Basic word order typology revisited: a crosslinguistic quantitative study based on UD and WALS
- The effect of L2 German on grammatical gender access in L1 Polish: proficiency matters
- Validation of two measures for assessing English vocabulary knowledge on web-based testing platforms: brief assessments
- Validation of two measures for assessing English vocabulary knowledge on web-based testing platforms: long-form assessments
- Cerebral asymmetries in the processing of opaque compounds in L1 Polish and L2 English
- Are preschool children sensitive to the function of accessibility markers? A visual world study with German-speaking three- to four-year-olds
- Sensory experience ratings (SERs) for 1,130 Chinese words: relationships with other semantic and lexical psycholinguistic variables
- A corpus-based study of quoi in French native speech
- The overlooked effect of amplitude on within-speaker vowel variation
- Contextualized word senses: from attention to compositionality
- Words of scents: a linguistic analysis of online perfume reviews
- Constraction: a tool for the automatic extraction and interactive exploration of linguistic constructions
- The Red Hen Anonymizer and the Red Hen Protocol for de-identifying audiovisual recordings
- Novel metaphor and embodiment: comprehending novel synesthetic metaphors