62 Jen Hay and Margaret Maclagan
As there are only 20 tokens across 6 speakers, this sadly makes it imprac-
tical for us to examine whether the degree of monophothongization of /au/ is
gradiently related to F3. This will be an interesting question to consider as the
rate of intrusive /r/ after /au/ increases in NZE.
- Discussion
Phonological theories tend to model /r/ as a categorical phenomenon. We have
shown that it is non-categorical in two senses. First, the likelihood that /r/
will be produced is highly variable, and conditioned by a range of social and
linguistic factors. It is by no means categorically present. Second, when /r/ is
present, the degree of the constriction varies in a way that is both linguisti-
cally and socially constrained. Individuals from lower social classes are more
likely to use intrusive /r/, and their intrusive /r/ contains greater constriction.
This apparent relationship between the frequency with which a conso-
nant is produced and the quality of that consonant is intriguing, and raises the
Figure 2.15 Model effects for the effect of /au/ monophthongization on the rate of
/r/-insertion after /au/. The x-axis shows the Euclidean distance between
the two targets of /au/, the lower the Euclidean distance, the more
monophthongal the /au/.