VARIATION IN THE FACE AND GOAT VOWELS AMONG SOUTHERN CALIFORNIANS

Includes bibliographical references (pages 40-42).How do speakers vary their speech across different task types, and what features do speakers use to construct a Southern Californian identity? Four monolingual white women in their twenties who are native to San Diego were asked to produce speech in three styles: reading word lists, reading a fictional story, and reenacting the story using a dolphin puppet. Tokens of the FACE, GOAT, PRICE, and TRAP vowels in each of these styles were collected, and the first and second formants were measured to show the overall pattern and location of the vowels in the vowel space. The use of features, such as intonation or the frontness of vowels, in the puppet performance will show us which vowel features are salient to speakers. The expectation is that the quasi-diphthongs FACE and GOAT will vary in place with task type and monophthongs like TRAP will not. Quasi-diphthongs should pattern with either monophthongs or diphthongs in terms of diphthongization, which is the movement of vowel formants over the course of the vowel. Diphthongization is highest in diphthongs and minimal in monophthongs.\ud This thesis will show that TRAP does not vary in height or frontness with task type, which is evidence that TRAP is stable in its already retracted position in the vowel space and is potentially a non-salient feature to Southern Californian speech. GOAT, which is experiencing fronting in other areas of California, is actually situated at a stable frontness position, but its height varies, suggesting that the frontness of GOAT is not perceived by the speakers in this study as a salient feature, though height may be. GOAT patterns with TRAP in diphthongization, showing that GOAT may be monophthongized in Southern Californian speech. FACE varies in both height and frontness, suggesting that the place of FACE is a salient feature in Southern Californian speech and can be accessed in performance of a Southern Californian identity. As for diphthongization, FACE patterns with PRICE, which indicates that FACE may be diphthongized. These results show that the quasi-diphthongs FACE and GOAT possess potentially salient features of Southern Californian speech and warrant further study