An Exemplar Dynamic Approach to Language Shift

Abstract

Phonetic variability refers to the variability with which we speak. This variability may be a function of socio-linguistic factors such as dialect, for example the intervocalic /t/ in city is often pronounced as flap [R] in Canadian English but as glottal stop [P] in British English. It may also be a function of linguistic factors. For example in Canadian English, the pronunciation of /t/ is a function of prosodic environment: it is aspirated [t] in top, flapped [R] in city and glottalised [t ∼ P] in nightlife. In Quebecois French, /t/ varies as a function of segmental environment: it is affricated [t] preceding high front vowels /i/ and /y/, as in [ty] tu ‘you sg.’ but unaffricated elsewhere, as in [to] tot ‘early’. Finally, a certain amount of variability is intrinsic to speech, and results from the fact that our articulatory mechanisms are not characterized by robotic levels of precision. Phonetic variability has recently become the focus of much research because of its implications for how sound structure is represented in a language’s grammar. Generative models of phonology represent speech sounds lexically as single, abstract, invariant underlying forms. For example, [t] [R], and [P] in the English