Phonological patterns in BEG-raising

Abstract

Prevelar raising, or the raising of /ɛ/ before voiced velars, has been treated as a sound change that applies uniformly across relevant lexical items. Using self-reported responses from 434 participants, this paper shows that prevelar raising is more likely to occur if the velar is word-final (beg, leg) or intervocalic (negative, legacy) while raising is significantly less likely to occur when the velar is followed by a sonorant (pregnant, regulate), especially if that sonorant is a liquid (negligent, segregate). The set of words containing /ɛɡ/ is more heterogeneous than previously reported, suggesting that there are language-internal factors that must be controlled for when studying prevelar raising.

Stanley, Joseph A. 2019. Phonological patterns in BEG-raising. UGA Working Papers in Linguistics 4, 69–91. The Linguistics Society at UGA: Athens, GA.