Length and Frontness with Low Vowels in Irish English* (original) (raw)

Few features are quite as indicative of deviation from the sound system of Standard English among various dialects as the realization of low vowels. These themselves have been shifted and replaced continuously throughout the course of the history of English. Thus an essential part of the description of any variety of English will be that of low vowels. The realization of low vowels is also unique in that they vary considerably from front to back. The corresponding high vowels do not show an equal mobility on a horizontal axis. While it is true that /i/ and /u/ show variant which move consistently away from the extremes of high front and high back articulation these variants are usually cases of centralization. For /i/ variants such as [=i] are found in the Midlands (Hughes and Trudgill, 1979:54), [ii] in RP (Gimson, 1980: 102); for /u/ [=u] is found in the Midlands also (Hughes and Trudgill, 1979: 54) while [ü] is the realization in RP (Gimson, 1980: 119) and in pre-shwa position in RP is it even more centralized: [ö]. Horizontal variants are rare. Those varieties which have [*] usually have it as a realization of /u/. The latter show more horizontal variation; [+] is characteristic of large areas of Scotland and Northern Ireland (Wells, 1982: 402+404). There maybe further fronting of [+] to [y] in Scots as opposed to Scottish English, on this distinction, see Wells, 1982: 39ff.) where the feature [rounded] adopts the function of distinguishing these from the remaining high front vowels. But if one compares this situation with low vowels one sees that the opposite is the case. Centralized versions of /a/ for example ([ä]) are practically unknown are those of /a/ ([ä]). Pressure of the operating phoneme system may well be involved here, as /v/ usually occupies the low central region as does the unstressed /q/. But leaving considerations of system aside it is nonetheless remarkable that while high vowels normally gravitate towards the central articulatory region, either as monophthongs or through a breaking process, low vowels range along the bottom horizontal line as it were and show possibilities of being raised only as front or more rarely back vowels. The variety of English which I have chosen to examine low vowels in, and hopefully reach valid generalizations for, is Irish English, that spoken in the republic of Ireland, leaving aside Ulster as it presents a complex picture of its own which is practically uninfluenced by English in the republic. When using the term Irish English I am referring to urban middle class speech, to what one could regard as standard (southern) Irish English. Naturally such a general stance would, if taken at surface value, involved considerable levelling and neglect in detail. In the course of the following examination I will specifically refer to the idiosyncrasies of other varieties of Irish English, particularly in the area of low vowels, thus rendering an overall picture for this area of the Irish English sound system possible.