A Real-Time Trend Study of the Southern Vowel Shift in Kentuckiana

This article examines both the front and back shifts of the Southern Vowel Shift (SVS) in a rural Kentuckiana (south-central Indiana) community through 50 years of real time, from the middle of the twentieth century to the early twenty-first century. Euclidean distance measurements between the pair of high front vowels /i/ and /I/ and between the pair of mid front vowels /e/ and /ε/ are subjected to analyses of variance (ANOVAs). The mid front vowels are found to be involved in the SVS and increasingly so through real time; the high front vowels, in contrast, not only are not participating in the SVS but have exhibited movements in non-SVS directions. Fronting of the back vowels is analyzed through linear mixed-effects regression analyses. Except for /℧/, which remains stable over time in this community, the other back vowels, /u/, /o/, and the nucleus of the /a℧/ diphthong all show real-time changes that are consistent with the SVS. Some of the real-time developments are at odds with profiles of change through apparent time, which underscores the value of real-time data when and where it is available.