Rhotic articulation in To/r/onto English

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Description of Research Project

Numerous varieties of English are spoken in Toronto, both by native and non-native users. One rapidly developing local variety is Multicultural Toronto English (MTE), which is loosely defined by a set of accent features associated with ‘Toronto Slang’. The phonetic features of MTE are often associated with young, male native speakers of immigrant descent (particularly Black men) living in ethnically diverse areas like Brampton and Scarborough, as well as locally-salient social personae like ‘wasteyutes’ and ‘hoodmans’; however, Torontonians from various ethnic backgrounds and genders may utilize features of MTE. In this project, we are interested in the articulatory and acoustic features of the /r/ sound in Toronto English; that is, we will investigate both the technical properties of the sound waves that define /r/ and the anatomical properties of its production. There is little to no previous work on this variable in Toronto speech. Intuitively, though many Torontonians recognize a particular way that MTE speakers may pronounce their /r/ sounds. The typical North American /r/ is what we might deem a postalveolar approximant or retroflex approximant, accompanied by consistent lip rounding. We hypothesize that the ‘Toronto mans’ /r/ may instead be articulated a bit farther front in the mouth, as an alveolar approximant: that is, the tongue may approach the bump just behind the teeth instead of curling back toward the hard palate. Notably, some Caribbean varieties – from which MTE derives many features – may lack consistent lip rounding in /r/; the unique articulation of MTE /r/ may involve spread lips as opposed to the normative North American rounded /r/. We will be using state-of-the-art ultrasound video equipment recently purchased for the York University Phonetics Studio to non-invasively image experimental participants’ tongues and lips as they produce words containing /r/. Our analysis will look for variation and commonalities in how our Toronto-based participants from various ethnic and social backgrounds articulate the /r/ sound, and what correlations we fine between articulatory properties of /r/ and the acoustics of the sound produced.

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Undergraduate Student Responsibilities

Responsibilities of the DARE student will include:

• Completing TCPS2 ethics training
• Searching through social media commentary to find allusions to Toronto /r/ ‘in the wild’, helping us to establish its salience as a socially meaningful variable
• Assisting in synthesizing and summarizing scholarly literature on the articulatory and acoustical properties of /r/ in other English varieties
• Recruiting participants for articulatory data collection from among the York student population
• Receiving training in running the acoustic/articulatory experiment, and eventually running experiments independently
• Assisting in the processing of the resulting data
• Assisting in the write-up of results.

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Qualifications Required

Recommended student qualifications include:

• Requires completion of LING 2110 (Phonetics) with high marks. Ideally also LING 4220 (Acoustic Phonetics) with high marks.
• Enjoying interacting with strangers (and getting up close to their faces to set up an ultrasound machine)
• Familiarity with audio recording equipment and comfort with computers.