Keywords

apparent-time vowel patterns, Elsewhere Shift adoption among young Georgians, near-complete low-back merger and front-vowel retraction

Abstract

Lab recordings

20 UGA undergraduate students (10 female, born 1994–1998)
Read 300 sentences from COCA.
~30 minutes each, 12.5 hours total
Recorded in 2017 • 24,325 tokens

Is it inappropriate to say the SVS is “receding”?

What are they reverting back to? 1850s English?

Better interpretation: Young Georgians are adopting the Elsewhere Shift

The low back merger is (nearly) complete.
The front lax vowels have retracted.

How has Georgia English changed since the 1890s? All vowels have changed.

What is the trajectory of that change? In the direction of the Elsewhere Shift.

Original Publication Citation

Joseph A. Stanley. “Real Time Vowel Shifts in Georgia English.” The 6th Annual Linguistics Conference at UGA (LCUGA6). Athens, GA. October 4–5.