15th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS-15) Barcelona, Spain August 3-9, 2003

Phonetic Realizations of the New Zealand KIT Vowel in Relation to Two Social Variables

Zita McRobbie-Utasi (1), Donna Starks (2)

(1) Simon Fraser University, Canada
(2) University of Auckland, New Zealand

This study investigates the extent to which two interviewers vary the articulation of the KIT vowel in a single lexical item in rapid survey recording. On account of the ritualistic nature of the speech act - brief encounters, consisting of four questions, each requiring a one-word response - variation was expected to be minimal. The results, however, point to the need not only to recognize the different phonetic realizations of the vowel, but also to acknowledge that the variation is systematic.
   In identifying and quantifying the relationship between the spectral properties of this vowel and the variations evident in the speech of the two interviewers, it will be argued that these variations coincide with recognized patterns in the speech community associated with age, and to a lesser degree with gender.

Full Paper

Bibliographic reference.  McRobbie-Utasi, Zita / Starks, Donna (2003): "Phonetic realizations of the New Zealand KIT vowel in relation to two social variables", In ICPhS-15, 1201-1204.