Peter Sundkvist

A regional survey of the relationship between vowel and consonant duration in Shetland Scots

Abstract The local dialect spoken in the Shetland Isles constitutes a form of Lowland Scots. It has been suggested that stressed syllables in Shetland Scots tend to contain either a long vowel followed by a short consonant (V:C) or a short vowel followed by a long consonant (VC:), and furthermore that this pattern constitutes a trace of complementary quantity in Norn, a Nordic language spoken in Shetland approximately until the end of the eighteenth century. The existence of such a pattern has also been supported by acoustic measurements. Following a summary and overview of Norn’s demise in the Shetland Isles, this paper presents a regional survey of the relationship between vowel and consonant duration in stressed syllables in Shetland Scots. Based on acoustic data from 43 speakers, representing ten separate regions across the Shetland Isles, the inverse correlation between vowel and consonant duration is assessed. The results reveal that the inverse correlation is strongest in the northern part of Shetland and weakest in the south, and displays a general north-to-south decline across Shetland. The results are thus generally consistent with predictions that follow from regional variation concerning Norn’s death; evidence suggests that it survived the longest in the northern parts of Shetland.

The Lesser-Known Varieties of English: The British Isles

1. Introduction Daniel Schreier, Peter Trudgill, Edgar W. Schneider and Jeffrey Williams Part I. The British Isles: 2. Shetlands and Orkney Gunnel Melchers and Peter Sundkvist 3. Channel Islands Mari C. Jones Part II. The Americas and the Caribbean: 4. Canadian maritimes Michael Kiefte 5. Newfoundland and Labrador Sandra Clarke 6. Honduras/Bay Islands Ross Graham 7. White Caribbean Jeffrey P. Williams 8. Bahamas Jeff Reaser, 9. Dominican Kokoy Michael Aceto 10. Anglo-Argentinian English Julian Jefferies Part III. South Atlantic Ocean: 11. Falkland Islands David Britain and Andrea Sudbury 12. St Helena Daniel Schreier 13. Tristan da Cunha Daniel Schreier Part IV. Africa: 14. White Zimbabwean English Susan Fitzmaurice 15. White Kenyan English Thomas Hoffmann Part V. Australasia and Pacific: 16. Eurasian English in Singapore Lionel Wee 17. Peranakans English in Malaysia and Singapore Lisa Lim 18. Norfolk Island and Pitcairn Peter Muhlhausler.

An acoustic study of front rounded vowels in Shetland dialect.

This paper presents an acoustic analysis of front rounded vowels (FRVs) in the dialect spoken in the Shetland Islands, the northernmost locality of the British Isles. FRVs are typologically marked ...

An acoustic analysis of pulmonic ingressive speech in the Shetland Islands.

The use of a pulmonic ingressive airstream mechanism in the pronunciation of certain discourse particles, typically variants of “yes” and “no,” is a well‐known and salient feature of Scandinavian languages. It has been suggested, however, that this may be a more general North Atlantic phenomenon—occurring as far west as Newfoundland and New England—which spread via migration and trade routes. Unfortunately, there seem to be very few audio recordings available from areas other than Scandinavia and Newfoundland (perhaps partly attributable to various elicitation difficulties) and very little acoustic analysis has been presented [E. Thom, MA thesis, UCL (2005); R. Eklund, J. Int. Phonetic Assoc. 38, 235–325 (2008)]. This paper contains a study of ingressive discourse particles in the Shetland Islands, which have strong historical links to Scandinavia. A significant number of ingressives were found in field recordings from 1980–1982. This paper presents an acoustic pilot study of ingressive discourse particle...

Acoustic vowel space in pre-/r/ contexts : Shetland and American English

The acoustic space available to vowel systems in pre‐/r/ contexts commonly differs from that of other phonetic contexts. In English this space has gradually shrunk, which relates to changes in the phonetic nature of /r/, having gone from more consonantal articulations (tap, trill) to approximant and often complex articulations that have a stronger effect on the production and perception of adjacent vowels (e.g., “bunched” and retroflex /r/). This paper contains an acoustic study of pre‐/r/ vowel systems in Shetland and American English. F1–F3 values were obtained from steady state vowel portions from words spoken in isolation. The acoustic vowel spaces and the positions of contrastive items within these are compared and discussed in relation to the phonetic nature of /r/ and its effects on vowel formants. In contrast to American English, Shetland maintains a trill or tap as the principal realization of /r/, and the full range of vowel contrasts found elsewhere is supported before /r/. As Shetland is one o...