현대일반미국영어 후설저모음 합류와 /ɒ/로의 음소화

Low-Back Merger and Phonemicization of /ɒ/ in Modern General American English

This study predicts that the low-back merger in MGA will be implemented with loss of vowel length giving rise to /ɒ/ as a new phoneme. For the low-back merger, vowels /α:/ or /ɔ:/ as in thought /θα:t/ and caught /kɔ:t/ have been in the process of merging with [ɒ:] so that these words are now pronounced as [θɒ:t] and [kɒ:t] without distinction. Although [ɒ:] has been considered as an allophone, its phonemicization has been postulated with various sources of evidence, such as Philadelphia speakers exemplified by Jenny Rosetti and in-migrant adults in the region of King of Prussia, several judicial cases, the Bill Peters effect, a tendency for merger among younger speakers, and the results of the treatment of minimal pairs. On the basis of phonemicization of the allophone [ɒ:], this study further predicts that the process will be implemented until it is replaced with phoneme /ɒ/ as in RP. In support of the prediction, some pieces of evidence such as the redundancy of vowel length in MGA (Chomsky and Halle 1968, Wells 1990a), tensification and diphthongization of vowels in MGA (Halle and Mohanan 1985), and monophthongization and shortening of OE or ME [ɔ:] or [α:] to /ɒ/ in RP will be presented.