Response to Berkson, Davis, & Strickler, ‘What does incipient /ay/-raising look like?’

Language

Author

Josef Fruehwald

Published

2017

Doi

10.1353/lan.2017.0051

Abstract

Berkson, Davis, and Strickler (2017) provide an invaluable report on incipient /ay/-raising in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Their data suggest that /ay/-raising conditioned strictly by phonetic voice-lessness is a possible early stage in the development of /ay/-raising. This raises a particularly vexing question of why /ay/-raising has gone on to be conditioned by phonological voicing in all North American varieties for which its interaction with /t, d/ flapping has been examined. It suggests that the process of phonologization reorganizes the distribution of phonetic variants, rather than simply discretizing phonetic precursors.

Citation

BibTeX citation:

@article{fruehwald2017,
  author = {Fruehwald, Josef},
  title = {Response to {Berkson,} {Davis,} \& {Strickler,} “{What} Does
    Incipient /Ay/-Raising Look Like?”},
  journal = {Language},
  volume = {93},
  number = {3},
  date = {2017-01},
  url = {https://github.com/JoFrhwld/jofrhwld.github.io/research/papers/Fruehwald_2017_258NF56V.html},
  doi = {10.1353/lan.2017.0051},
  langid = {en},
  abstract = {Berkson, Davis, and Strickler (2017) provide an invaluable
    report on incipient /ay/-raising in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Their data
    suggest that /ay/-raising conditioned strictly by phonetic
    voice-lessness is a possible early stage in the development of
    /ay/-raising. This raises a particularly vexing question of why
    /ay/-raising has gone on to be conditioned by phonological voicing
    in all North American varieties for which its interaction with /t,
    d/ flapping has been examined. It suggests that the process of
    phonologization reorganizes the distribution of phonetic variants,
    rather than simply discretizing phonetic precursors.}
}

For attribution, please cite this work as:

Fruehwald, Josef. 2017. “Response to Berkson, Davis, & Strickler, ‘What Does Incipient /Ay/-Raising Look Like?’” Language 93 (3). https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2017.0051.