Etude acoustique d'un contraste dérivé en anglais d'Ecosse
Abstract
Phonological length is generally thought not to be relevant in Scottish English. However, some vowels are appreciably longer when followed by the past morpheme /d/ (instead of a tautomorphemic /d/), resulting in so-called `derived contrasts'. Do derived contrasts qualify as full-edged phonemic oppositions or should they be regarded as allophonic variation? In the current paper, which is a preliminary to perceptual experiments addressing this question, we quantify the differences in duration and spectral variation brought about by appending the dental suffix of the past morpheme to /u/, /i/, and /ai/. We show that consistent lengthening occurs for /u/ and /ai/, as well as stronger diphthongization in /ai/, which suggests that duration should perhaps be included in the vowel system of Scottish English.