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What does incipient /ay/-raising look like? A response to Josef Fruehwald

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2026

Kelly Berkson,
Stuart Davis and
Alyssa Strickler
Kelly Berkson*
Affiliation:
Indiana University
Stuart Davis*
Affiliation:
Indiana University
Alyssa Strickler*
Affiliation:
Indiana University
*
Linguistics Department, Indiana University, Bloomington, 1020 E. Kirkwood Ave., Ballantine Hall Rm 844, Bloomington, IN 47405 [kberkson@indiana.edu] (Berkson) [davis@indiana.edu] (Davis) [arstrick@umail.iu.edu] (Strickler)
Linguistics Department, Indiana University, Bloomington, 1020 E. Kirkwood Ave., Ballantine Hall Rm 844, Bloomington, IN 47405 [kberkson@indiana.edu] (Berkson) [davis@indiana.edu] (Davis) [arstrick@umail.iu.edu] (Strickler)
Linguistics Department, Indiana University, Bloomington, 1020 E. Kirkwood Ave., Ballantine Hall Rm 844, Bloomington, IN 47405 [kberkson@indiana.edu] (Berkson) [davis@indiana.edu] (Davis) [arstrick@umail.iu.edu] (Strickler)
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Abstract

In examining the history of /ay/-raising before voiceless consonants in Philadelphia, Josef Fruehwald (2016) concludes that either categorical phonological conditioning was present from the very onset of this phonetic change, or the period of purely phonetic conditioning was too brief to be identified. This is based on the observation that raising is phonological in the Philadelphia data: it occurs before voiced flaps that are underlyingly voiceless (as in writing), but not before underlyingly voiced flaps (as in riding). In this response, we provide the first acoustic documentation of an English variety that shows an incipient phase of /ay/-raising where the conditioning environment is purely phonetic.

Keywords

Canadian raisingphonologizationincipient sound changeflappingmetrical foot

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Language , Volume 93 , Issue 3 , September 2017, pp. e181 - e191
Copyright
Copyright © 2019 Linguistic Society of America

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