Revisiting areal and lexical diffusion: the case of Viennese Monophthongization in Austria’s traditional dialects

Autor: Vergeiner Philip C., Luttenberger Jan, Bülow Lars, Wallner Dominik, Britain David
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2023
Předmět:
Zdroj: Linguistics, Vol 61, Iss 4, Pp 915-957 (2023)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 0024-3949
1613-396X
DOI: 10.1515/ling-2021-0105
Popis: This paper investigates the geographical and structural diffusion of “Viennese Monophthongization” (VM). By means of a new numerical measure to assess and compare formant movement in 18 lexical items, we provide evidence that VM is an ongoing, regular sound change transforming [aɛ̯] and [aɔ̯] gradually into [æː] and [ɒː]. Data are based on direct dialect recordings of 76 speakers in two age groups in 19 eastern and central Austrian rural locations. Results indicate that VM is diffusing from Vienna in a wave-like fashion. Even though VM is reported to have been established in other bigger cities for more than 30 years, the data show no evidence of diffusion from these cities. There are also other factors affecting the degree of formant movement: The phonetic-phonological environment (stress and the following consonant) explains most of the variance in the data, whereas no frequency effects could be found. Social identity, cultural space, and gender-related network structures are discussed as additional social factors.
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