A Reader in Sociophonetics

Effects of Consonantal Context on the Pronunciation of /æ/ 79

Melinda, Ronald and Jesse). The next section presents an analysis of the
degree to which Group A correlates with how /æ/ patterns allophonically. If
some environments promote the shift more than others, this should be observ-
able in terms of relative variation among tokens across individuals. If phono-
logical environment has no relationship to the shift, then there should be no
difference in environmental effects in people who are strongly inÀ uenced by
the shift, as compared to people whose speech is not strongly inÀ uenced.

3.2 Phonetic conditioning of [ae]

Table 3.2 presents an ordered list that ranks the effectiveness of conditioning
environment on the pronunciation of /æ/, based on a comparison of Labov’s
(1994) results to those of the three Lower Michigan studies mentioned before.

Table 3.2 Ranked List of the InÀ uence of Consonantal Environment on the Produc-

tion of /æ/, Based on the Combined Findings of Labov (1994), Ito (1999),

Evans (2001) and Jones (2003)

Preceding Consonant

/æ/

Following Consonant

VELAR NASAL

APICAL

VOICED STOP

VOICED FRICATIVE

VOICELESS FRICATIVE

LABIAL

VOICELESS STOP

LIQUID

Although the four studies did not ¿ nd identical rankings, they are in agree-
ment with respect to the ¿ rst and last feature in each environment. The left-
most column in Table 3.2 provides an ordered list of preceding consonant
features, beginning at the top with the factor that most promotes the fronting
and raising of /æ/ (velar consonants), and ending at the bottom with the least
promoting factor (liquids). Following the methodology used in Plotnik, these
studies did not test every preceding manner and place environment separately,
but rather tested for only those environments that had been shown previously
to have the strongest conditioning inÀ uence.
The rightmost column gives a similarly ordered list of following conso-
nant manner features. Although Labov (1994) does include a ranked ordering
for following place of articulation, this factor had little effect on /æ/ in any of
the Michigan studies.