Ethnolectal variability in Australian Englishes

Clothier, Joshua

doi:10.4324/9780429019692-12

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 1 publication

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“…Three main accent groups can be identified: Mainstream Australian English (Cox & Palethorpe 2007), the majority variety; Australian Indigenous Englishes (e.g. Butcher 2008, Malcolm 2013, Meakins & O'Shannessy 2016, used by many First Nations Australians; and a range of ethnocultural varieties used to express non-mainstream or ethnic identity (Warren 1999;Clyne, Eisikovits & Tollfree 2001;Kiesling 2005;Antoniou et al 2010Antoniou et al , 2011Cox & Palethorpe 2011;Clothier 2019;Grama, Travis & González 2020).…”

Section: Mainstream and Non-mainstream Australian Englishmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fifty years of change to prevocalic definite article allomorphy in Australian English

Cox¹,

Penney²,

Palethorpe³

2022

Journal of the International Phonetic Association

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The English definite article has two major allomorphs: prevocalic /ðiː/ and preconsonantal /ðə/. Recent studies have shown changes to definite article allomorphy in some English varieties. Younger speakers, particularly from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, often use /ðə/ prevocalically rather than /ðiː/. The prevocalic definite article (PVDA) /ðiː/ facilitates management of vowel hiatus because it supports the emergence of [j] in preventing vowel adjacency (e.g. the ash [ðiːjœʃ]). An alternative strategy for separating adjacent vowels is glottalisation or glottal stop ([ðiːʔœʃ]). Few studies have explored the relationship between the vowel in the PVDA and hiatus management during the process of change. We report a diachronic analysis of Australian English (AusE) PVDA and associated hiatus management across a 50-year period (∼1960s to ∼2010s) and a synchronic analysis of present-day speakers from mainstream (MS) and non-mainstream (non-MS) (diverse) backgrounds using two read-sentence contexts. The aim is to provide insight into the process of change and factors that may influence its progression. Speech data from adolescents recorded in 1959/1960 were compared with recordings from Mainstream AusE-speaking (MS) young people recorded in the 2010s. Results showed significantly greater incidence of schwa in the PVDA and hiatus-breaking glottalisation in the modern data, particularly amongst females. The synchronic analysis comparing present-day MS and non-MS speakers showed increased use of glottalisation in females and non-MS speakers. Additionally, acoustic analysis showed more schwa-like productions in the PVDA by non-MS speakers. Of key importance in both analyses is that glottalisation was more prevalent than schwa, possibly indicating glottalisation triggered the change.

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Section: Mainstream and Non-mainstream Australian Englishmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fifty years of change to prevocalic definite article allomorphy in Australian English

Cox¹,

Penney²,

Palethorpe³

2022

Journal of the International Phonetic Association

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Multicultural Australian English – The New Voice of Sydney

Cox,

Penney

2024

Australian Journal of Linguistics

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Hiatus resolution and linguistic diversity in Australian English

Penney,

Cox,

Gibson

2024

Phonetica

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Vowel hiatus is typically resolved in Australian English through complementary strategies of liaison (j-gliding/w-gliding/linking-r) and glottalisation. Previous work suggests a change in progress towards increased use of glottalisation as an optimal hiatus-breaker, which creates syntagmatic contrast between adjacent vowels, particularly when the right-edge vowel is strong (i.e. at the foot boundary). Liaison continues to be used when right-edge vowels are weak, but glottalisation as a hiatus resolution strategy in general appears to be increasing and may be more common in speakers from non-English speaking backgrounds raising the question of whether exposure to linguistic diversity could be driving the change. We examine hiatus resolution in speakers from neighbourhoods that vary according to levels of language diversity. We elicited gliding and linking-r hiatus contexts to determine how prosodic strength of flanking vowels and speakers’ exposure to linguistic diversity affect hiatus resolution. Results confirm that glottalisation occurs most frequently with strong right-edge vowels, and gliding/linking-r are more likely with weak right-edge vowels. However, strategies differ between gliding and linking-r contexts, suggesting differing implementation mechanisms. In addition, speakers from ethnolinguistically diverse areas produce increased glottalisation in all contexts supporting the idea that change to the hiatus resolution system may be driven by language contact.

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Ethnolectal variability in Australian Englishes

Cited by 3 publications

References 1 publication

Fifty years of change to prevocalic definite article allomorphy in Australian English

Fifty years of change to prevocalic definite article allomorphy in Australian English

Multicultural Australian English – The New Voice of Sydney

Hiatus resolution and linguistic diversity in Australian English

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