Fronted high back vowel /u/

Mon Dec 21 22:23:34 UTC 2009

These monophthongs can result, particularly in the South and in rapid
speech, but in the literature on American dialects (like Labov's
Philadelphia study) the term vowel fronting is extended to cover
diphthongization where at least the first element (V1) is front or
central, thus [Iu] or [(barred I) + u].  The South may front both V1
and V2 to result in diphthongs as fronted as [iy].

Likewise, o-fronting almost always refers to a diphthongization
process in an American context, so you get forms in ROAD like [@U] or
["EU] (and, again, Southerners may front the V2).  This confused me
when I came back to the States, since I'd dealt with Northumbrian,
where an earlier /o:/ (and /O/) actually turns into a true front or
central rounded vowel.
But I've noticed this in Labov's work (though I've otherwise been a
fan since the '70s)--he ignores diphthongization a lot when he talks
about vowel shifting.  The vowel in CAT in the Great Lakes isn't
"raising" to become homophonous to Kate, and it doesn't cross the
path of the BET vowel.  Rather, only the V1 of CAT is raising, while
BET stays monophthongal (as it lowers, backs, or both).  So you get a
downgliding diphthong.  In the Detroit or Chicago "raised vowel", the
V2 stays roughly where it was, so you get [eæ]; in Binghamton, NY,
you might get centralization (I heard [I@] there).  I think this is
due to two things:
(1)  The type of instrumental measurement he does on vowels, where he
measures them at ONE point (which is why I think purely instrumental
measurements ought to be supplemented by "impressionistic" ones, at
least for broad-outline phenomena) and
(2)  The Trager/Smith analysis he (and many of us) have all been
trained in that looks at diphthongs as real vowel + glide instead of
vowel + vowel.  Lass (1975) indicates that this analysis is, at best,
a phonologization, and at worst, a fiddle to make sure glides can
appear in all positions in a syllable. (Of course, teenagers like my
16 year old niece (from near Ashland, OH) might prove Trager/Smith
right, with her emphatic "No!" = [no:w@], and "They DO!" = [Dei
dIuw@])  In any case, you can get either element changing alone, even
moving in different directions, or moving in tandem, and the history
of English dialectal vowel systems can produce examples of any of
these types.

Paul Johnston

On Dec 21, 2009, at 2:06 PM, Gordon, Matthew J. wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Gordon, Matthew J." <GordonMJ at MISSOURI.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Fronted high back vowel /u/
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---------
>
> I think that usually some rounding is retained when fronted so it
> might be close to a /y/ or the barred-u (= u with the line through
> it).
>
>
> On 12/21/09 12:32 PM, "Tom Zurinskas" <truespel at HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:
>
> To hear these sounds in three different voices go to the vowel
> sound chart at  http://www.phonetics.ucla.edu/course/chapter1/wells/
> wells.html
> But "high" back is not given - just "back".
>
> What symbol does a "fronted /u/ when saying "food" take from the
> diagram above so I can hear it?  Or just give me a word in
> thefreedictionary.com that has that vowel sound.
>
>
> Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL7+
> see truespel.com phonetic spelling
>
>
>
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>> Poster: Tony Au
>> Subject: Re: Fronted high back vowel /u/
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>> ----------
>>
>> Just an anecdote, but I've always noticed a friend of mine (Inland
>> Northern
>> speaker) has a very fronted /u/ in "food"
>>
>> Tony
>>
>>
>> On Sun, Dec 20, 2009 at 11:41 PM, Herb Stahlke wrote=
>> :
>>
>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>> -----------------------
>>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>>> Poster: Herb Stahlke
>>> Subject: Re: Fronted high back vowel /u/
>>>
>>> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> -----=
>> ------
>>>
>>> I sing in a community choir in Anderson, IN, and direct a church
>>> choir
>>> nearby, and /u/-fronting is very widespread in this area. It causes
>>> problems for choral conductors, who end up spending valuable
>>> rehearsal
>>> time fixing choral diction problems like this.
>>>
>>> Herb
>>>
>>> On Sun, Dec 20, 2009 at 10:16 PM, Randall Gess
>>> wrote:
>>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>> -----------------------
>>>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>>>> Poster: Randall Gess
>>>> Subject: Re: Fronted high back vowel /u/
>>>>
>>> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> -----=
>> ------
>>>>
>>>> I wonder if there is any data on fronting after non-coronals.
>>>> The word
>>>> I heard it in was "movie".
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Language: Defining dreams for millennia.
>>>>
>>>> Randall Gess
>>>> Professor and Director
>>>> School of Linguistics and Language Studies
>>>> 215 Paterson Hall, Carleton University
>>>> 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa ON K1S 5B6
>>>> Tel: (613) 520-6612 Fax: (613) 520-6641
>>>> Email: randall_gess at carleton.ca
>>>>
>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>
>>>> The information in this message, including any attachments, is
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>>>> listed
>>>> above and permanently delete the original transmission from us,
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>>>> University
>>>> is fully compliant with the Freedom of Information and
>>>> Protection of
>>>> Privacy Act and appreciates your cooperation in this matter.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 20-Dec-09, at 9:20 PM, Gordon, Matthew J. wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>>>> -----------------------
>>>>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>>>>> Poster: "Gordon, Matthew J."
>>>>> Subject: Re: Fronted high back vowel /u/
>>>>>
>>> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> -----=
>> ------
>>>>>
>>>>> My statement was based on my recollection of what Labov and
>>>>> colleagues reported in the Atlas of North America English. Notice
>>>>> that I didn't claim that every person in every part of the country
>>>>> outside of the Inland North has fronting of these vowels. I said
>>>>> that this pattern was found (i.e. could be heard from some
>>>>> speakers)
>>>>> there.
>>>>>
>>>>> To check my recollection, I took a look at the ANAE's findings
>>>>> (map
>>>>> 10.24, p. 101) on fronting of /u/ following coronals (the
>>>>> environment most conducive to fronting). They report fronting
>>>>> in at
>>>>> least one speaker from the following states:
>>>>> Alaska, Washington, California, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, So.
>>>>> Dakota,
>>>>> Nebraska, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma,
>>>>> Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Penn.,
>>>>> Michigan, Kentucky, Virginia, New York, New Jersey, Conn., No.
>>>>> Carolina, So. Carolina, Tenn., Arkansas, Louisiana, Miss.,
>>>>> Alabama,
>>>>> Georgia, Florida.
>>>>>
>>>>> That's just the speakers with the most extreme fronting
>>>>> (normalized
>>>>> F2> 1950 Hz). If you include those with moderate fronting (F2>
>>>>> 1800 Hz), you pick up speakers in Oregon, Nevada, West
>>>>> Virginia, as
>>>>> well as several New England states.
>>>>>
>>>>> -Matt Gordon
>>>>> ________________________________________
>>>>> From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
>>>>> Behalf Of
>>>>> Wilson Gray [hwgray at GMAIL.COM]
>>>>> Sent: Sunday, December 20, 2009 6:23 PM
>>>>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>>>> Subject: Re: Fronted high back vowel /u/
>>>>>
>>>>> "Fronting of /u/ (and /o/) is found pretty much everywhere in
>>>>> the US
>>>>> except for the Inland North (e.g. the Great Lakes region)."
>>>>>
>>>>> "*Pretty much everywhere* in the US except for the Inland
>>>>> North"? A
>>>>> claim hard to support, unless you've been pretty much everywhere.
>>>>>
>>>>> When I first read of the existence of this sound shift in the
>>>>> intro to
>>>>> linguistics by the late Fr. Dineen, SJ, of Georgetown, I was
>>>>> totally
>>>>> shocked, since his statement, like yours, gives the impression
>>>>> that
>>>>> this is a feature of al dialects of US English. One of D's
>>>>> examples
>>>>> was "newn" [niun] for "noon." This and pronunciations like
>>>>> "skewl" for
>>>>> "school" are certainly common, if not standard, among white
>>>>> Southerners at least as far west as Abilene, TX. But, till I had
>>>>> occasion to live in the Northeast, I had no idea that this oddity
>>>>> existed anywhere else. But then, you have in mind only white
>>>>> speakers,
>>>>> right? And, even among white speakers, such speakers along the
>>>>> Left
>>>>> Coast are not being included, no doubt.
>>>>>
>>>>> However, I'm still waiting to hear it used generally from coast to
>>>>> coast, as, e.g. [nu:] for "new" is. (Not that [nIu] has become
>>>>> obsolete. *Many* people still use it.)
>>>>>
>>>>> Of course, I may have run completely off the rails, here, in
>>>>> attempting to take you to task about this. Sound-change is pretty
>>>>> unpredictable. In my lost youth, the pronunciation of, e.g.
>>>>> "now" as
>>>>> "naow" [n&u] and not as [nau] was *absolutely* not used by BE
>>>>> speakers, except *very* rarely in mockery of SE speakers. (E.g.
>>>>> there
>>>>> was once a popular version of the song, Temptation, recorded by
>>>>> one
>>>>> "Cinderella G. Stump," which was done in a mockery of white,
>>>>> mountain
>>>>> speech. It was also popular 'mongst us cullud chirren, though
>>>>> we had
>>>>> no idea that it was supposed to be a put-down, Saint Louis
>>>>> being such
>>>>> a speech-island, back in the day, that we didn't know that there
>>>>> existed people who really did speak more-or-less that way.
>>>>> Nowadays,
>>>>> I'd be hard put to find a BE speaker younger than fifty or so who
>>>>> still uses [nau] and not [n&u]. If it wasn't for being able to
>>>>> listen
>>>>> to my old blues and R&B records, I might even begin to doubt my
>>>>> own
>>>>> memory that [nau] was ever used by anyone outside of my own
>>>>> family.
>>>>>
>>>>> Once upon a time, the glo?al stop was so rare that I knew only a
>>>>> single individual who used it in his ordinary speech, whether
>>>>> monitored or unmonitored. I occasionally wondered whether he might
>>>>> have a speech defect. Nowadays, the glo?al stop is virtually a
>>>>> marker
>>>>> of hiphop/rap speech, and is slowly creeping into other forms of
>>>>> speech, based on what I hear on The Judges.
>>>>>
>>>>> -Wilson
>>>>>
>>>>> On Sun, Dec 20, 2009 at 12:25 PM, Gordon, Matthew J.
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>>>>> -----------------------
>>>>>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>>>>>> Poster: "Gordon, Matthew J."
>>>>>> Subject: Re: Fronted high back vowel /u/
>>>>>>
>>> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> -----=
>> ------
>>>>>>
>>>>>> This sounds like pretty classic Southern Shift: back vowel
>>>>>> fronting
>>>>>> + raising of /E/ and /I/. The only thing odd would be the
>>>>>> direction
>>>>>> of the glide. When diphthongal, the lax vowels in the SoShift
>>>>>> usually have central/schwa offglides if I recall correctly.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Fronting of /u/ (and /o/) is found pretty much everywhere in
>>>>>> the US
>>>>>> except for the Inland North (e.g. the Great Lakes region).
>>>>>>
>>>>>> -Matt Gordon
>>>>>> ________________________________________
>>>>>> From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
>>>>>> Of Randall Gess [randall_gess at CARLETON.CA]
>>>>>> Sent: Sunday, December 20, 2009 8:38 AM
>>>>>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>>>>> Subject: Fronted high back vowel /u/
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Hello,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I'm new to the list. I've just started doing volunteer work on
>>>>>> occasion for a victim identification unit of law enforcement. I
>>>>>> have a
>>>>>> recording with a male North American speaker that has a rather
>>>>>> fronted /u/ sound (F1 395, F2 1816), in the word 'movie'. I've
>>>>>> heard
>>>>>> this kind of fronting before, but does anyone know how
>>>>>> widespread it
>>>>>> is geographically? The /E/ in leg is also a bit raised at F1
>>>>>> 550, F2
>>>>>> 1942 and slightly diphthongized toward /ei/, but this is not as
>>>>>> pronounced as I've heard in some accents. Does anyone know where
>>>>>> these
>>>>>> features might co-occur?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Thanks
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Randall
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Language: Defining dreams for millennia.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Randall Gess
>>>>>> Professor and Director
>>>>>> School of Linguistics and Language Studies
>>>>>> 215 Paterson Hall, Carleton University
>>>>>> 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa ON K1S 5B6
>>>>>> Tel: (613) 520-6612 Fax: (613) 520-6641
>>>>>> Email: randall_gess at carleton.ca
>>>>>>
>>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The information in this message, including any attachments, is
>>>>>> privileged and may contain confidential information intended
>>>>>> only for
>>>>>> the person(s) named above. Any other distribution, copying or
>>>>>> disclosure is strictly prohibited. If you are not the intended
>>>>>> recipient or have received this message in error, please notify
>>>>>> Carleton University immediately by reply email at the contact
>>>>>> listed
>>>>>> above and permanently delete the original transmission from us,
>>>>>> including any attachments, without making a copy. Carleton
>>>>>> University
>>>>>> is fully compliant with the Freedom of Information and
>>>>>> Protection of
>>>>>> Privacy Act and appreciates your cooperation in this matter.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>>>>
>>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> -Wilson
>>>>> =E2=80=93=E2=80=93=E2=80=93
>>>>> All say, "How hard it is that we have to
>>>>> die!"=E2=80=93=E2=80=93a stra=
>> nge complaint to
>>>>> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>>>>> =E2=80=93Mark Twain
>>>>>
>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>>>
>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>>
>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>>
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>
>>
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>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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