ISCA Archive ISAPh 2024
ISCA Archive ISAPh 2024

Variation of vowel /ɤ/ in the speech of teenagers in Saaremaa: A case study

Pire Teras, Kristiina Praakli

In the context of dialect levelling and the sustainability of regional languages, it is essential to examine which features persist in young people’s speech. This study focuses on the labialization of the vowel õ /ɤ/ as a characteristic feature of the accent of the insular dialect in Estonian. The aim is to determine the variability in the pronunciation of /ɤ/ in the speech of two 12-year-old boys from Kuressaare, Saaremaa. The data is from the spoken corpus compiled within the project “Teen Speak in Estonia” (TeKE, [1]). Acoustic analysis of the vowels õ /ɤ/ and ö /ø/ reveals that their pronunciation does not entirely overlap. There is significant variation in the front-back dimension of /ɤ/, with some variants resembling unrounded back vowel [ɤ] and others resembling rounded front vowel [ø]. In addition, /ø/ has become more backward, indicating an approximation in the quality of these two vowels. Despite the relatively large variation, the labialization of /ɤ/ can be considered a characteristic of the accent of insular dialect in the speech of these two teenagers.