Glottalisation cues coda stop voicelessness in many varieties of English. This is most frequently reported for /t/; however, varieties differ according to which stops are glottalised and the frequency with which they are glottalised. In Australian English (AusE), glottalisation as a cue to coda stop voicelessness has been suggested to be a recent change to the variety, with younger speakers employing glottalisation at much higher rates than older speakers (Penney et al. 2016). This has as yet only been examined for stops at alveolar place of articulation (POA), though anecdotal evidence suggests glottalisation may also be present for velar and labial voiceless stops in AusE (Tollfree2001). The present study examines the progression of this change through the community with reference to POA.
We examined 512 /CVɹəC/ trochees with final voiceless stops at each POA from 61 speakers from Sydney in two age groups: a younger group (18-35, n=34, f:16, m:18) and an older group (56+,n=27, f:12, m:15). Using logistic mixed effects modelling, we analysed the effects of age, gender and POA on the presence of coda glottalisation in the unstressed syllables. The results show that glottalisation occurs for voiceless stops at all three POAs in AusE, but occurs more frequently for alveolar stops than the other stops. Furthermore, the results confirm previous findings that younger speakers glottalise more than older speakers and also demonstrate that females employ glottalisation more frequently than males within each age group. The results suggest that glottalisation can affect all voiceless stops in AusE, though alveolar stops are most commonly glottalised, and that female speakers are leading this change to the variety.
References
Penney, J., Cox, F., Palethorpe, S., & Miles, K. (2016). Glottalisation and coda stop voicing inAustralian English. Poster presented at SST2016, Sydney.
Tollfree, L. (2001). Variation and change in Australian consonants, in D. B. Blair & P. Collins,(Eds.), Varieties of English around the world: English in Australia. Amsterdam: Benjamins, pp.17–44.
