Anne Fabricius, Roskilde University
Paper at Sociolinguistics Symposium 16, Limerick, 8 July 2006
Unravelling variation and change in the short vowel system of RPi
1) Data
Independent
Hawkins & Midgley (2005) data
Comparisons
Speaker number:
Sources:
Birth year:
1
2
3
4
5
pre 1928
b.1928-36 (group 1)
-24
19 13 9
16
-46
Deterding 1997 male h
6
Deterding 1997 male c
-18
Queen recorded 1950s
2
Queen recorded 1960s
-11
Queen recorded 1980s
10
Wells 1962
b.1946-51 (group 2)
“Break group”
8
47 -21 -26
67
41
Cambridge male b.1956
62
-25 -2 40
27
52
Cambridge male b. 1966
119*
Cambridge male b. 1973
70
Cambridge male b.1980
b. 1961-66 (group 3)
“Break group”
b. 1976-81 (group 4)
61
84 56 79
58
Table 1: Angle data rounded to nearest integer
*calculation due to angle size
 = (arctan ((F2 strut-F2 trap)/(F1 trap-F1 strut))) + 90 degrees
2) CALCULATION EXAMPLE FROM SLIDE 16
F2
TRAP
STRUT 1
STRUT 2
F1
1,5
1
0,5
0,25
1,5
0,75
2
1,5
a and b
a
b
F1 trap - F1 strut
F2 trap - F2 strut
0,5
0,75
a/b
Theta
(angle)
1,5
equals tan theta
0,982794
56 STRUT 1
in radians in degrees
Angle
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Anne Fabricius, Roskilde University
Paper at Sociolinguistics Symposium 16, Limerick, 8 July 2006
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Acknowledgements:
I am grateful to David Deterding, Kirsty McDougall, Paul Kerswill, Eivind Torgersen, Peter Trudgill, Paul Foulkes,
Dominic Watt, Bent Preisler, Peter Roach and Simon Arnfield for encouragement, assistance, discussion and critique of
this paper. Any remaining errors are my own responsibility.