Variable stem-final fricative voicing in American English plurals: Different pa[ð ~ θ]s of change. (22nd October 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: MacKenzie, Laurel
• Is Part Of: Language variation and change. Volume 30:Number 2(2018)
• Page Start: 147
• Page End: 174
• Publication Date: 2018-10-22
• Subjects: Linguistic change -- Periodicals; Sociolinguistics -- Periodicals; 410.05
• DOI: 10.1017/S0954394518000091
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0954-3945

Abstract

Abstract: This paper investigates analogical leveling in a small set of English nouns that have irregular plural forms. In these nouns, all of which end in a voiceless fricative, the fricative standardly voices in the plural (e.g., wolf – wol[v]es, path – pa[ð]s, house – hou[z]es ). Using audio data from three large spoken corpora of American English, I demonstrate that this stem-final fricative voicing is variable and conditioned by a number of factors, most notably the identity of the stem-final fricative—with /f/-final lexemes (e.g., wolf ), /θ/-final lexemes (e.g., path ), and the /s/-final lexeme house all patterning differently in apparent time—and the frequency of a lexeme in its plural form. I argue that the way these two factors affect the variation is reminiscent of the patterns seen in children's first language acquisition errors, providing a potential source for the variation and underscoring the importance of considering morphophonological factors when accounting for patterns of change.