Cross‐generational differences in dynamic formant patterns in vowels.

Abstract

As the position of a vowel changes within the vowel space across generations of speakers, so does its dynamic formant pattern. This study examines variation in the dynamic patterns of vowel formants across two age groups: children (8–12 years) and older adults from their grandparents’ generation (51–65 years). The cross‐generational changes in vowels /ɪ, ε, æ/ were examined for each of the three regional variants of American English spoken in Southeastern Wisconsin (affected by the Northern Cities Shift), Western North Carolina (affected by the Southern Vowel Shift) and Central Ohio (not considered to be affected currently by any vowel shift). The following vowels in children’s productions were monophthongized as compared to those of their grandparents’ generation: Wisconsin /ɪ, ε/ (but not /æ/), North Carolina /ε, æ/ (but not /ɪ/), and Ohio /ɪ, ε, æ/. In addition to the reduced formant movement, some of the children’s vowels had a different direction of formant change. These cross‐generational changes were assessed in a set of measures including formant trajectory length, spectral rate of change and angle of formant change. The measures were calculated from formant frequencies extracted at points in the vowels corresponding to 20, 35, 50, 65, and 80% of the vowel’s duration. [Work supported by NIH.]