Slowly changing their minds: Evidence of gradual phonologization in Michigan
Since the 1920’s in Lansing, MI, the traditional Northern Cities Shift raising of /æ/ in all phonological environments has been giving way to a nasal system whereby pre-nasal and pre-oral allophones have been moving toward different F1/F2 targets. I examine whether this change was abrupt—speakers in this initial generation posited a representational difference between the two allophones—or gradual—the representational difference was developed at some point after the phonetic target change(s). I analyzed (1) the distributions in F1/F2 space of pre-nasal and pre-oral /æ/ tokens, which were naturally produced by 36 Lansing natives, and (2) the results of a sub-phonemic judgement task (N=107). We find that though the two allophones have been moving along different phonetic targets since the 1920s in Lansing, the phonological rule is only apparent for speakers born after 1980. Therefore, this phonological change is occurring gradually: a result of phonetic (and social) variability.
