Chain shifts, strident vowels, and expanded vowel spaces

Abstract

<p><span>Chain shifts among vowels proceed along tightly prescribed articulatory paths: peripheral vowels raise, and high vowels, butting up against the top of the vowel space, must instead diphthongize or centralize (Labov 2004). I argue that high vowels may </span><span>also </span><span>further increase their constriction degree, resulting in spirantized vowels with phonetic characteristics of voiced fricatives (Connell 2007). I account for the rare emergence of these vowels with basic principles of dispersion (Liljencrants and Lindblom 1972): tongue height sufficient to produce frication may be integrated into the articulatory vowel space as the end result of raising in push chains. </span></p>