Dialects Of American English

Front 1

Features more common in AAVE but that also occur in other GAE dialects

Back 1

1. Word-final cluster reduction
2. Unstressed syllable deletion
3. Deletion of reduplicated syllables
4. Vowelization of postvocalic [l]

Front 2

Features in other vernacular dialects but NOT in GAE

Back 2

1. Deletion of post-consonantal [r]
2. Interdental fricatives
Labialization
Stopping

Front 3

Features specific to the South

Back 3

Historical:
1. Metathesis
2. Loss of r-coloring

Recent
1. Diphthong reduction
2. Before nasals, [ɛ] and [ɪ] are both [ɪ]
3. Before nasals, fricatives become stops

Front 4

Features unique to AAVE

Back 4

1. Stress preference for trochaic template
2. Nasal assimilation + final consonant deletion
3. Final stop devoicing
4. [str] clusters become [skr]

Front 5

Spanish American vowels

Back 5

a. Five vowels in Spanish, all tense: [i, e, u, o, a]
b. No central vowels, no rhotic vowels
c. Three similar diphthongs in English: [aɪ, aʊ, oɪ]

Front 6

Spanish American consonants

Back 6

Similar consonants to English

[t] and [d] are dentalized

English consonants not in Spanish: [v, z, h, θ, ð, ʃ, dʒ, ʒ, ŋ]

Two rhotics: tap & trill

Front 7

Spanish American phonological changes

Back 7

1. Devoicing of [z]
2. [v] becomes [β ] or [b]
3. Interdental fricatives become stops
4. Unstressed syllable deletion
5. velarization of [h] → [x]
6. Word-initial epenthesis on word-initial clusters
7. [dʒ] devoiced to [t͡ʃ], also substituted for [j]

Front 8

Cantonese American vowels

Back 8

English vowels not in Cantonese: [e, æ, ɑ, oʊ, ʌ, ə]
(lax & central)

No rhotic vowels

Long & short vowels not separate phonemes → no phonemic diff btwn lax & tense vowels, e.g. [lɪv] → [liv]

Front 9

Cantonese American consonants

Back 9

English consonants not in Cantonese: [b, d, g, v, z, ʃ, ʒ, θ, ð, r]
(No voiced stops or frics, no interdental frics)

Aspiration causes phonemic contrast for [p, t, k]
→ [p̚] = [pʰ]

Phonemic contrast in aspiration of affricates, i.e. no [t͡ʃ] or [d͡ʒ], but ~[ts] and [dz]

Front 10

Cantonese American phonological changes

Back 10

1. Word-final devoicing of plosives
2. [f] → [v], [s] → [z] = Substitutions of VL counterpart
3. [s] for [ʃ] and [ʒ]
4. Cantonese affricates substituted for English affricates, e.g. [tsis] for [t͡ʃiz]
5. Cluster reduction or epenthesis to get rid of clusters
(Syllable level has no clusters in Cantonese)
6. Difficulty differentiating btwn [l] and [r]
i. Word-initial [r] subbed w/[w] or [l]
ii. In word-final position, r-coloring is deleted
iii. In word-final position, [l] gets vowelized or something like [wiɫ]

Front 11

Korean American vowels

Back 11

English vowels not in Korean: [ɪ, æ, ʊ]
(lax vowels)

No rhotic vowels

Front 12

Korean American consonants

Back 12

1. Context-dependent voicing of plosives
i. Syllable-initial plosives are VL
ii. Intervocalic plosives are V

2. Phonemic contrast in aspiration of affricates → Korean has [t͡ʃ] and [d͡ʒ], but aspirating them changes meaning

3. English consonants not in Korean: [b, f, v, ʃ, ʒ, θ, ð, w, r, j, l]

Front 13

Korean American phonological changes

Back 13

1. Word-final stops [p, t, k] never released
2. Fricatives → stops
3. Difficulty differentiating [l] & [r]
i. Will either get alveolar Korean liquid
ii. Or [l] → [r]
4. Syllable structure → No word-final codas (*CODA)
i. Consonants are only released when followed by a vowel in the same syllable
ii. Epenthesis can allow for a coda, e.g. [bit͡ʃ] → [bit͡ʃə]

Front 14

Arabic American vowels

Back 14

Only 3 vowels: [i, a, u] (no central vowels)

2 diphthongs [aʊ] and [eɪ]

No rhotic vowels

Front 15

Arabic American consonants

Back 15

Pharyngealized productions are phonemic

Has interdental fricatives, dentalized /t, d, n/

English consonants not in Arabic: [g, v, ʒ, d͡ʒ, ɹ]

Front 16

Arabic American phonological changes

Back 16

1. One-to-one correspondence btwn sounds & letters
2. Vowel distinctions
3. Consonant substitutions
4. Separation of /n/ and /ŋ/
(Tendency to add /k/ to velar /ŋ/, e.g. [fɪʃɪŋ] → [fɪʃɪŋk])
5. Alveolar-only [l]
6. [d] always unaspirated in word-final position
7. [r] = trill