An acoustic sociophonetic study of dialect changes in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom: A study of Vermont’s last frontier
This is the first sociophonetic survey of the NEK. We focus on /ai/ and /au/ raising and glottalization. 52 interviews were conducted. Interviews were transcribed and vowels (n=38,924) were extracted and aligned. Each instance of /t/ was hand-coded (n=4,229).
The results reveal parallels between the current NEK results and those found in western Vermont. The addition of social class adds information critical to a more complete understanding of phonetic change in the region. Results:
1. /au/ raising is on the decline. Lower SES females lead this change and high SES speakers did not raise /au/ at all. 2. /ai/ raising is declining in the elsewhere position. However, older, lower SES males raise /ai/ in all contexts. 3. Word-final glottal stop was common but with no social differences. Released /t/ was less frequent, but females and high SES speakers were more likely to use it. Word-medial glottal stops were less frequent.
