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Article published In:
English World-Wide
Vol. 38:1 (2017) ► pp.29–49

Can you t[æ]ll I’m from M[æ]lbourne?

An overview of the dress and trap vowels before /l/ as a regional accent marker in Australian English

| The University of Melbourne | ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language
| The University of Melbourne | ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language
| The University of Melbourne | ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language

This study gives an overview of the merger of the dress and trap vowels before laterals, which occurs for some speakers of Australian English in the state of Victoria (in the south-east of the country), as well as in some other varieties of English. Research on this phenomenon in Australian English has been preliminary to date, but has uncovered some general tendencies in distribution, as well as possible motivators for actuation and spread of the change. The aim of this paper is to describe and orient the phenomenon in the context of English worldwide, and while we work with some illustrative experimental data, our aim is not to provide a detailed quantitative sociophonetic perspective here. This paper further aims to illustrate the extent of the variability seen in the Australian English community with respect to ongoing change.

Keywords: Australian English, sound change, vowel merger, speech production, speech perception, regional variation
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Vowel variation in Australian English
    • 2.1Australian English and regional patterning
    • 2.2Emergence of the dress and trap vowel before /l/ in AusE
    • 2.3Other English-speaking locations in which the /el/-/æl/ merger occurs
    • 2.4Previous research into the /el/-/æl/ merger
      • 2.4.1Experimental work
    • 2.5Other vowel changes in Australian English lax vowels relevant to the /el/-/æl/ merger
      • 2.5.1Short front vowel lowering conditioned by laterals
      • 2.5.2Perception work relating to the dress and trap merger before /l/
      • 2.5.3Another phenomenon, /æl/-/el/ transposition
  • 3.An illustration of phonetic detail and variability in production
  • 4.Discussion and conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 29 June 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/eww.38.1.03loa
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