Sound change proceeds incrementally within adult lifespans: longitudinal evidence from /s/-retraction in Australian English

Abstract

This study is concerned with the progression of phonetically-motivated sound changes at the population level and within individual grammars. It presents the results of three experiments (production, perception, agent-based modelling), all focused on the case study of /s/-retraction in Australian English /str/ (e.g. the initial sound in street resembles that in sheet). For the production study, eighteen speakers from Braidwood, NSW were recorded twice, eight years apart. Coarticulatory /s/-retraction was evident for all speaker participants in /str/ in the first recording session (ca. 2014). After eight intervening years, incremental shifts in the same direction (towards /ʃtr/) were evident for most – but not all – speaker participants. A perception experiment showed that the magnitude of the longitudinal change was sufficient to be audible to L1 English listeners. Interaction between the eighteen speaker participants was simulated in an agent-based model, seeded with the 2014 data. Comparison between the outcome of simulated interaction and the real-world changes over eight years suggests that phonetically-motivated sound change is predictable at the population level but not at the level of the individual speaker.

Speaker bio

Dr. Mary Stevens, Institute for Phonetics and Speech Processing, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich

Dr. Mary Stevens is a researcher at the Institute for Phonetics and Speech Processing. Her research focuses on sound change, considering how and why phonetic variation occasionally results in a permanent change. Combining detailed experimental phonetic approaches with complex statistical modelling techniques, Mary’s research considers the cognitive and social aspects of sound change. She currently has a Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Council) grant to investigate the phonetics of /s/-retraction in Australian English.