California English: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 07:48, 20 January 2006

Revision as of 07:49, 20 January 2006

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Unlike some of the other vowel shifts, however, the California Vowel Shift is generally considered to be in earlier stages of development as compared to the more widespread Northern and Southern Vowel Shifts, although the new vowel characteristics of the California Vowel Shift are increasingly found amongst younger speakers. As with many vowel shifts, these significant changes occurring in the spoken language are rarely noticed by average speakers; imitation of peers and other [[Sociolinguistics|sociolinguistic]] phenomena play a large part in determining the extent of the vowel shift in a particular speaker. For example, while some characteristics such as the [[Close central rounded vowel]] {{IPA|[ʉ]}} or [[Close back unrounded vowel]] {{IPA|[ɯ]}} for [u] are widespread in Californian speech, the same high degree of fronting for {{IPA|[oʊ]}} is common only within certain social groups. No matter the individual degree a speaker displays the emergence of the California Vowel Shift and its spread amongst younger speakers point to a future form of California English which will have undoubtedly diverged significantly from other varieties.

The term "California drawl" is sometimes used to described the practice of lengthening the accented syllable's vowel in time, taking up to twice as long as the time given to other vowels in a word, and sometimes accompanied by a shift of the accent to another syllable. Unlike the "Southern drawl" or the Texas-style "Western drawl", no twang or changes to the vowel's value (e.g. a diphthong) are introduced: the Californian simply pronounces the accented vowel for a longer time than the other vowels in the word. This is most noticeable in the native pronunciations of "San Francisco" and "Sacramento". Non-Californian pronunciation would sound like "San Fran CIS co" and "Sac ra MEN to" with each syllable equally timed and the accent placed on the penult. A California drawl pronunciation would be "SAAAN Fran cis co" and "SAAACK ra men to" with the so-called short-A {{IPA|æ}} sound unchanged in value but held for a longer time.{{fact}}

==Lexical characteristics==