Matt Hunt Gardner
University of Toronto
Slit Fricatives in Cape Breton English
Focusing on methodology, this presentation reports results from two preliminary investigations of slit fricative production/use among speakers from the Cape Breton Regional Municipality. The first study examines acoustic and articulatory qualities of this sound and aims to determine what qualities, if any, differentiate slit fricatives from other coronal fricatives and stops. The results are compared with similar studies in other communities in which slit fricatives have been attested. The second study examines what internal linguistic factors may constrain the use of slit fricatives among young speakers and uses new statistical methods to argue that two systems (traditional and novel) for slit fricatives use may exist within the same generation in the community.
