EXPLORING THE STATUS OF THE VOICELESS LABIOVELAR FRICATIVE /ʍ/ IN CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN ENGLISH
EXPLORING THE STATUS OF THE VOICELESS LABIOVELAR FRICATIVE /ʍ/ IN CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN ENGLISH

Summary/Abstract: The study attempts to investigate the current status of the voiceless labiovelar fricative /ʍ/in American English with reference to selected sociolinguistic variables, such as age,regional background, formality of the speech and prestige. The study comprises 17 subjectsand 34 recordings of their speech – two recordings of a different level of formality per eachspeaker. All of the analyzed recordings are available online. The analysis focuses on wh-words, such as e.g. why, while, whale or white. In the first part of the study, the number ofwh-context words in each speech is juxtaposed with the actual production of the researchedvariable. The second part of the study concentrates on the comparison of the obtainedqualitative data with selected social variables. The results of the study may not only broadenthe understanding of the voiceless labiovelar fricative use in American English but may alsohave pedagogical implications to whether the variable should be included in the phoneticcourses on American English.

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