Phonological patterns in BEG-raising

Keywords

prevelar raising, sound change, intervocalic

Abstract

Prevelar raising, or the raising of /ɛ/ before voiced velars, has been treated as a sound change that applies uniformly across relevant lexical items. Using self-reported responses from 434 participants, this paper shows that prevelar raising is more likely to occur if the velar is word-final (beg, leg) or intervocalic (negative, legacy) while raising is significantly less likely to occur when the velar is followed by a sonorant (pregnant, regulate), especially if that sonorant is a liquid (negligent, segregate). The set of words containing /ɛɡ/ is more heterogeneous than previously reported, suggesting that there are language-internal factors that must be controlled for when studying prevelar raising.

Original Publication Citation

Stanley, Joseph A. 2019. Phonological patterns in BEG-raising. UGA Working Papers in Linguistics (4), The Linguistics Society at UGA: Athens, GA. 69–91.

Document Type

Peer-Reviewed Article

Publication Date

2019

Permanent URL

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/8868

Publisher

The Linguistics Society at UGA

Language

English

College

Humanities

Department

Linguistics

University Standing at Time of Publication

Assistant Professor

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