Ethnicity and social class in pre-vocalic 'the' in Australian English

Gan Qiao; Catherine Travis

Ethnicity and social class in pre-vocalic 'the' in Australian English

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

Abstract

Across varieties of English, the realisation of pre-vocalic definite article the is undergoing change, with a move away from non-glottalised FLEECE towards both glottalised FLEECE and SCHWA. Here, we examine this change in apparent time in a socially stratified corpus of spontaneous speech with 91 native speakers of Australian English of Anglo-Celtic, Italian and Chinese background. Analyses of 1,207 tokens reveal that the increase of both new forms is led by women and middle class speakers. An overall higher rate of newer variants by Italian and Chinese Australians is attributable not directly to ethnicity, but to its intersection with social class.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings of the 18th Australasian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology
Editors	Rosey Billington
Publisher	Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association Inc.
Pages	56
Number of pages	60
Publication status	Published - 2022

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Qiao, G., & Travis, C. (2022). Ethnicity and social class in pre-vocalic 'the' in Australian English. In R. Billington (Ed.), Proceedings of the 18th Australasian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology (pp. 56). Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association Inc.. https://sst2022.files.wordpress.com/2022/12/qiao-travis-2022-ethnicity-and-social-class-in-pre-vocalic-the-in-australian-english.pdf

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title = "Ethnicity and social class in pre-vocalic 'the' in Australian English",

abstract = "Across varieties of English, the realisation of pre-vocalic definite article the is undergoing change, with a move away from non-glottalised FLEECE towards both glottalised FLEECE and SCHWA. Here, we examine this change in apparent time in a socially stratified corpus of spontaneous speech with 91 native speakers of Australian English of Anglo-Celtic, Italian and Chinese background. Analyses of 1,207 tokens reveal that the increase of both new forms is led by women and middle class speakers. An overall higher rate of newer variants by Italian and Chinese Australians is attributable not directly to ethnicity, but to its intersection with social class.",

author = "Gan Qiao and Catherine Travis",

year = "2022",

language = "English",

pages = "56",

editor = "Rosey Billington",

booktitle = "Proceedings of the 18th Australasian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology",

publisher = "Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association Inc.",

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Qiao, G & Travis, C 2022, Ethnicity and social class in pre-vocalic 'the' in Australian English. in R Billington (ed.), Proceedings of the 18th Australasian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology. Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association Inc., pp. 56. <https://sst2022.files.wordpress.com/2022/12/qiao-travis-2022-ethnicity-and-social-class-in-pre-vocalic-the-in-australian-english.pdf>

Ethnicity and social class in pre-vocalic 'the' in Australian English. / Qiao, Gan; Travis, Catherine.
Proceedings of the 18th Australasian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology. ed. / Rosey Billington. Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association Inc., 2022. p. 56.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

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AB - Across varieties of English, the realisation of pre-vocalic definite article the is undergoing change, with a move away from non-glottalised FLEECE towards both glottalised FLEECE and SCHWA. Here, we examine this change in apparent time in a socially stratified corpus of spontaneous speech with 91 native speakers of Australian English of Anglo-Celtic, Italian and Chinese background. Analyses of 1,207 tokens reveal that the increase of both new forms is led by women and middle class speakers. An overall higher rate of newer variants by Italian and Chinese Australians is attributable not directly to ethnicity, but to its intersection with social class.

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BT - Proceedings of the 18th Australasian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology

A2 - Billington, Rosey

PB - Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association Inc.

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Ethnicity and social class in pre-vocalic 'the' in Australian English

Abstract

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