Rural Southern white accents: Vowels

Virtually every vowel class shows distinctive variants in rural white Southern English. A number of processes, such as triphthongization, glide weakening of PRIZE and PRICE, upgliding forms of THOUGHT and BATH, and the PIN/PEN merger, have become more or less stereotypical of Southern speech. One assemblage of vowel shifts, dubbed the Southern Shift, has attracted prominent attention recently. It consists of several different shifts that are associated with each other. PRIZE, and often PRICE as well, undergo glide weakening to [a:ε~a:] or, as in the Pamlico Sound region, become backed to . The tense/lax front vowel pairs switch places: the nuclei of FACE and FLEECE become non-peripheral and fall, while KIT and DRESS become peripheral and rise toward [i] and [e], respectively. The nucleus of GOAT may fall, and GOAT and GOOSE become fronted. Finally, THOUGHT is either diphthongized to something like  or raised toward [o]. It should be noted that the different components of the Southern Shift have not spread through the South at the same time. Shifting of THOUGHT may date from the late 18^th or early 19^th centuries and glide weakening of PRIZE apparently dates from the late 19^th century, while fronting of GOAT spread mostly after World War II.

The following descriptions discuss the different variants that occur in various parts of the South, giving their general distributions across time, space, and social groups. Social distribution is poorly known for many of these forms, though some information is available in LAGS and various smaller-scale studies. Traditionally, the glides of upgliding diphthongs have been transcribed with lax vowel symbols, e.g.,  and  . Acoustic measurements, however, show that upgliding diphthongs normally glide toward the periphery of the vowel envelope. Hence these glides are usually transcribed here with tense vowel symbols. Similarly, acoustic measurements indicate that what have traditionally been called “ingliding” diphthongs actually glide both inward and downward, so that a form denoted as [eə] is probably better described as [eε] or [eæ] . Much of the information discussed below is taken from Thomas (2001) or from sources referenced therein.