The effects in varying contexts on the adding and dropping of [h] by grade IV and grade IX students on New World Island, Newfoundland

Whalen, John (1978) The effects in varying contexts on the adding and dropping of [h] by grade IV and grade IX students on New World Island, Newfoundland. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

The basic purpose of this study was to observe the effects of the varying phonetic and grammatical contexts on the adding and the “dropping” of the aspirate. -- To achieve this end, an instrument was employed. This instrument included 24 consonants and 16 vowels, 6 of which were lax or short; 9 of which were tense of long; and 1 which was the neutral vowel schwa [ǝ] (see Appendix A). -- The population chosen for the study consisted of all Grade IV and Grade IX Pentecostal students on New World Island, Newfoundland. -- The instrument was in two parts - Area A concerned the adding of the [h] and Area B concerned the “dropping” of the [h]. Both parts were divided into eleven different contexts in which people added or “dropped” the [h] sound. -- Seventy student informants - forty-two at Summerford, twenty-eight at Chapel Island - were involved. The author found that [h] occurred more frequently: -- i. at word boundaries rather than within words; -- ii. before stressed vowels rather than before unstressed vowels; -- iii. after preceding vowels rather than after preceding consonants; -- iv. before unrounded vowels (front and low types) rather than before rounded vowels; -- v. on nouns preceded by certain determiners; that is, with high frequency after the definite article “the” with medium frequency after the indefinite article “a/an” and with lower frequency after the demonstratives “this/that/ these/those” (these results are compatible with the findings in (2) and (3) above).

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