Vowel Changes in Two RP Speakers with Different Social Status: A Sociophonetic Study of TRAP/STRUT Vowels

Volume 19 , Issue 6 , October 2018 , Pages 403-412

Authors

Twana Saadi Hamid 1

1 Department of English, College of Education and Languages ,Charmo University, Kurdistan Region, Iraq

DOI logo 10.17656/jzsb.10840

Keywords

Abstract

This study tries to track and compare changes of TRAP/STRUT vowels in three time periods
(1950s; 1980s and 2012). The vowel changes, from the Queen of England and David Attenborough,
are analysed and compared for two reasons. First, to track and discover changes in RP vowel
formants. Second, to see to what extent, if any, the two speakers of the study adapt their vowel
formants to that of RP. To this end, Formant frequencies of TRAP/STRUT vowels for each speaker
in each time period is extracted using PRAAT. Unlike Harrington et al (2000) who acoustically

Journal of Zankoy Sulaimani-Part B / for Humanities No (58) Oct 2018 303
analyse The Queen’s Christmas speech, this study analyses and compares The Queen’s vowel
formant changes with another RP speaker. By having two RP speakers with different social status
and different gender (male and female), this study reports findings of social variables such as social
class and gender.

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  • Published at27 October 2018

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