1 /o/ ~ /oh/ Skewed opposition depending on length Low back mergerIncrease phonetic distance Northern Cities Shift Pittsburgh chain shift Canadian Shift Back vowel shift Back upglide chain shift Inland North: front /o/ Eastern seaboard: raise /oh/ South: add upglide The Life History of Linguistic Change William Labov, University of Pennsylvania ICHL Montreal August 2007

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3 A sequence of linguistic changes Unstable condition AB Unidirectional Bidirectional A’B’ Causally linked Contingent alternatives Triggering event

4 Components of a sequence of linguistic changes 1.Triggering events: the first in the chain of causally connected events 2.Governing principles: constraints that determine the unidirectional character of changes 3.Forks in the road: alternate pathways of change that differentiate sister dialects 4.Driving forces: factors that lead to the continued incrementation of the changes 5.Re-analysis: the process that leads to the uniform distribution of the changes across the speech community.

5 Two ways of looking at the problems of language change 1.The actuation problem 2.Constraints problem 3.The transition problem 4.The embedding problem 5.The evaluation problem Triggering events Governing principles Forks in the road Driving forces Re-analysis Weinreich, Labov & Herzog 1968 Accounting for changes This presentation Accounting for sequences of changes

6 ANAE notation for the word classes of North American English

7 ANAE notation aligned with JC Wells’ word classes for American English

8 Triggering events

9 The Canadian Shift in the vowel system of Marsha M., 24 [1997], Montreal, TS659 backing of /æ/ lowering of /e/ merger of /o/ and /oh

10 The Canadian Shift in the vowel system of Hubert B., 17, Toronto, TS798 backing of /æ/ lowering of /e/ merger of /o/ and /oh

11 Source: The Atlas of North American English The Canadian Shift: mean values of Canadian Telsur subjects [N=25] compared to all others [N=414].

12 The Canadian Shift nested in the Low Back Merger area (ANAE Map 11.7) Low back merger isogloss

13 The Canadian Shift 1 2 3

14 The low back merger of /o/ and /oh/ in cot and caught, etc. (ANAE Map 9.1) The West Canada W. Pa. E.N.E.

15 aw OE ag vocaliza- tion of /g/ ah eah breaking rounding OF au ME av vocaliza- tion of /v/ a+u aN oht denasal- ization o __f,s, T,N length- ening thaw, straw, claw maw, saw, draw fought, taught thought, bought brawn, pawn hawk, laundry applaud, because off, cost, cloth, strong EME lawn, spawn /oh/  The development of /oh/ alC talk, call, all vocaliza- tion of /l/ vocaliza- tion of /x/ wa water, wash round- ing [ç:] mono- phthong- ization [au]

16 /o//oh/ cotcaught Dondawn hockhawk stockstalk oddawed codcawed SolSaul odd abilityaudibility... Minimal pairs contrasting /o/ and /oh/

17 /o/ /o/ -> /oh/ /oh/ tcot, tot, hot, got, dotcaught. bought, taut, fought dodd, hod, god, sodawed, hawed, gaud, sawed stoss, moss, floss, costsauce, exhaust, caustic zOz, positivecause, clause, hawser, paws ndon, don, pond ondawn, awn, yawn, lawn ldoll, moll, collarall, tall, maul, caller phop, pop, top, sop brob, hobdaub, bauble c& Scotch, botch, watch jlodge, dodge, Roger glog. hog, cog, dogauger, augment, augur, August kstock, hock, clockstalk, hawk, talk f{boff} off, doff, scoff,cough, T {Goth} cloth, moth, S gosh, bosh, tosh D bother z& mbomb, Tom, prom N {ping pong} strong. song, wrong # law, saw, flaw, thaw, claw Contrast of /o/ and /oh/ after tensing of /o/ apicalsapicals

18 A linguistic sequence /oh/ Low back merger Canadian Shift e æ oh o OE aw OE au OE ah OE eah OF au OF an OF a+u ME av OE oht ME a (:}u EME ç: ME ç (:}u ~ /o/ Mod E. off, lost, song Unstable condition

19 A linguistic sequence 1 /oh/ ~ /o/ Merge /o/ - -> /oh/ Canadian Shift e æ oh o Triggering event Unstable condition

20 Governing principles

21 Garde’s Principle: Mergers cannot be reversed by linguistic means Herzog’s Corollary: Mergers expand at the expense of distinctions General principles of merger

22 A linguistic sequence 1 /oh/ ~ /o/ ~ /ah/ Merge /o/ - -> /oh/ Canadian Shift e æ oh o Unidirectional

23 In chain shifts, I. Long vowels rise. II. Short nuclei fall. II. Back nuclei shift to the front. --Labov, Yaeger & Steiner 1972 General principles of chain shifting

24 In chain shifts, I. Tense nuclei rise along a peripheral track II. Lax nuclei fall along a non-peripheral track General principles of chain shifting

25 Phonemes co-existing in a language tend naturally to optimize the possibilities that are available from the speech organs; they tend to be as distant from their neighbors as possible while remaining easy to articulate and easy to perceive... Martinet 1955:62 (tr. WL), attributed to de Groot TCLP 1931:121 Martinet on maximal dispersion

26 /æ/ /o/ /oh/ A stable distribution of English low vowels: an outlier not recognized as a member of the /æ/ distribution mean F Hz

27 /æ/ /o/ /oh/ A stable distribution of English low vowels: an outlier not recognized as a member of the /æ/ distribution mean F Hz

28 An unstable distribution of English low vowels: /o/ merged with /oh/ so that the /æ/ outlier affects the central tendency of /æ/, /æ/ /o=oh/ mean F Hz

29 The Canadian Shift across subsystems /e/ /æ//o/ /oh/ Short vowels Long and ingliding vowels

30 A linguistic sequence 1 /oh/ ~ /o/ Merge /o/ - -> /oh/ Canadian Shift e æ oh o Unidirectional

31 Forks in the road

32 Forks in the road of the Canadian Shift /e/ /æ//o/ /oh/ / /i/ /u/

33 The Pittsburgh Shift in the vowel system of Ken K., 35, TS 258

34 The Pittsburgh Shift in a Plotnik display of means of 21 dialects PI = Pittsburgh; WPA = Western Pennsylvania; CA = Canada; IN = Inland North; M = Midland; MA = Mid-Atlantic; PR = Providence; IS = Inland South low back merger lowering of /^/ no backing of /æ/ backing of /æ/ no lowering of /^/,CA

35 A linguistic sequence 2 /oh/ ~ /o/ Merge /o/ - -> /oh/ Pittsburgh Shift Canadian Shift e æ oh o o Unidirectional Bidirectional

36 A linguistic sequence 3 /oh/ ~ /o/ Merge /o/ - -> /oh/ Pittsburgh Shift Canadian Shift e æ oh o o unround- ing /o/ Unidirectional Bidirectional Unidirectional Bidirectional

37 Unrounding of /o/ in Western New England Boston Burlington RutlandManchester F2(o) < 1300 Hz F2(o) >= 1300 Hz

38 The merger of /o/ and /ah/ /oh/ OE aw OE auOE ah OE eah OF au a+u OF an ME av OE oht ME a : u EME ç: ME ç : u off cloth loss lost strong song …. father pa ma spa bra hah calm palm llama pasta taco Scarlatti Rama pajama Obama Bach Iraq ….. half bath past aunt dance ….. /ah/ EME A: ME ç X t salve halve /o/ [A][A]

39 A linguistic sequence 3 /oh/ ~ /o/ ~ /ah/ Merge /o/ - -> /oh/ Merge /o/ --> /ah/ Pittsburgh Shift Canadian Shift e æ oh o o unround- ing /o/ Unidirectional Bidirectional Unidirectional Bidirectional balm = bomb father = bother

40 A linguistic sequence 3 /oh/ ~ /o/ ~ /ah/ Merge /o/ - -> /oh/ Merge /o/ --> /ah/ Pittsburgh Shift Canadian Shift e æ oh o o unround- ing /o/ Unidirectional Bidirectional Unidirectional Bidirectional Inland North: fronting of /o, ah/

41 Fronting of /o,ah/ in the Inland North (ANAE Map 14.5).

42 Ked cud ah codcad cawed The Northern Cities Shift

43 The Northern Cities Shift head desk bosses busses block socks mat

44 A linguistic sequence /oh/ ~ /o/ ~ /ah/ Merge /o/ - -> /oh/ Merge /o/ --> /ah/ Northern Cities Shift Pittsburgh Shift Canadian Shift Inland North: fronting of /o, ah/ e æ oh o o e æh oh ah unround- ing /o/ Unidirectional Bidirectional Unidirectional Bidirectional

45 Raising of /oh/ in the Mid-Atlantic States: Providence to Baltimore Magenta symbols: F1(oh) < 700 Hz

46 A linguistic sequence 4 /oh/ ~ /o/ ~ /ah/ Merge /o/ - -> /oh/ Merge /o/ --> /ah/ Northern Cities Shift Pittsburgh Shift Canadian Shift Back vowel shift Inland North: front /ah/ Eastern seaboard: raise /oh/ e æ oh o o e æ ah ah(r) oh(r) unround- ing /o/ Unidirectional Bidirectional Unidirectional Bidirectional

47 Three areas of resistance to the low back merger (ANAE Map 11.2)

48 A linguistic sequence 5 /oh/ ~ /o/ ~ /ah/ Merge /o/ - -> /oh/ Merge /o/ --> /ah/ Northern Cities Shift Pittsburgh Shift Canadian Shift Back vowel shift Back upglide chain shift Inland North: front /ah/ Eastern seaboard: raise /oh/ South: add upglide to /oh/ e æ oh o o e æ ah ah(r) oh(r) oh [ç:] awæw unround- ing /o/ Unidirectional Bidirectional Unidirectional Bidirectional Unidirectional Bidirectional round- ing /o/ [ço] [Ao][Ao]

49 Merger of /o/ and /oh/ in cot and caught, Don and dawn, hock and hawk

50 NCS Back Vowel Shift Back Upglide Shift NCS Alternatives to the low back merger

51 NCS Back Vowel Shift Back Upglide Shift Pitts- burgh Shift NCS Low back merger and alternatives to the low back merger Canadidn Shift

52 Driving forces

53 Source: Eckert 2000 Gender and social category determination of five elements of the Northern City Shift in a Detroit suburban high school æ

54 Age *FemaleYears of 25 yrsGenderEducation Raising /æ/ 34* 8.6* /e/-/æ/ reversal 34* 26* /e/-/o/ alignment 112*** /^/-/o/ reversal * Social correlates of four measures of the Northern Cities Shift [N=71]

55 Three areas of resistance to the low back merger St. Louis corridor

56 The St. Louis corridor along Interstate I-55 Fairbury

57 Fronting of /o,ah/ in the Inland North (ANAE Map 14.5). 9 Telsur speakers from No. Illinois 9 Telsur speakers from the St. Louis corridor * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * * * *

58 Distribution of NCS measures in No. Illinois and the St. Louis corridor

59 A linguistic sequence 5 /oh/ ~ /o/ ~ /ah/ Merge /o/ - -> /oh/ Merge /o/ --> /ah/ Northern Cities Shift Pittsburgh Shift Canadian Shift Back vowel shift Back upglide chain shift Inland North: front /ah/ Eastern seaboard: raise /oh/ South: add upglide to /oh/ e æ oh o o e æ ah ah(r) oh(r) oh aw æw unround- ing /o/ Unidirectional Bidirectional Unidirectional Bidirectional Unidirectional Bidirectional round- ing /o/

60 The Pittsburgh Shift across subsystems /e/ /æ/ /o/ /oh/ Short vowels Long and ingliding vowels /o,oh/