Dialect emergence or new-dialect formation in intensive contact situations has been the subject of research for decades. Approaches to dialect emergence have led to a more solid understanding of the origins of specific phonological features. This line of research often approaches issues of new-dialect formation and phonological feature development within the confines of one linguistic subfield. However, new-dialect formation is a multifaceted phenomenon which results from a combination of dialectological, phonological and historical linguistic factors. The current thesis presents a comprehensive account of phonological feature development in new-dialect formation from a combined theoretical perspective by exploring historical and contemporary processes in the emergence of phonologically-conditioned variation in the price and mouth lexical sets in Liverpool English. This feature has been widely researched in other varieties of English and has previously been attributed to new-dialect formation. However, little is known about the patterns of price and mouth in Liverpool English. The current thesis relies on multiple methods of data collection (e.g. a combination of fieldwork and corpus data), various quantitative methods, and detailed acoustic analyses (e.g. formants and Euclidean distance in a two-dimensional formant space) to investigate the precise details and the processes involved in the emergence and development of price and mouth patterns in Liverpool English. Liverpool English is thought to have emerged during the 19th century as a result of extensive and prolonged immigration from the surrounding areas of Lancashire and Cheshire, and from Ireland, Wales, and Scotland. However, the specific timing, extent of immigration, and proportion of immigrant populations have not been investigated in detail. The current thesis provides the first in-depth analysis of historical census records in order to extend our knowledge of the populations in Liverpool at the time of new-dialect formation. The insights obtained from this analysis provide a more nuanced picture of the development of Liverpool English. They are essential for determining what dialects potentially contributed to dialect formation and the repertoire of price and mouth variants present at the time that these processes were developing. The analysis of historical census records is further augmented by using a combination of quantitative methods and historical corpora in order to gain a fuller understanding of the processes involved in the formation of these dialect features. The contemporary investigation of price and mouth in Liverpool English shows that these patterns are separate, but related, and that their phonological conditioning environments resemble those reported for cases of price and mouth variation in other varieties of English. I present a detailed overview of the phonetics and phonology of price and mouth variation in Liverpool English, looking at a wide range of conditioning environments. This investigation also reviews a range of different quantitative measurements useful for research on variation involving diphthongs. The origins of price and mouth phonological patterns in Liverpool English indicate that an approach combining different theoretical perspectives is required to adequately explain the development of these patterns. The current thesis suggests that price and mouth phonologically conditioned variation in Liverpool English initially resulted from variants of different dialects within the dialect contact situation. However, some features of the contemporary patterns developed following new-dialect formation as a by-product of phonetic and phonological properties of diphthong production in certain following environments. By approaching the development of these phonological features in Liverpool English from a combination of theoretical perspectives, the current thesis expands our understanding of emergent phonological features in new-dialect formation.

“Canadian Raising” (CR) is a phonological process typical of Canadian English, defined as the production of /aj, aw/ with raised nuclei before voiceless codas, e.g. in about. This dissertation investigates the relationship between CR and another process which abbreviates vowels in the same phonological context in most English dialects: pre-voiceless vowel abbreviation (PVVA). This study sampled three North American dialects: Canada, and the American West and North. Comparisons of vowel duration and formant trajectories revealed common patterns and specific differences between these dialects related to both CR and PVVA. Comparisons of vowel formant trajectories were conducted using statistical techniques for comparing curvilinear datasets, employed in novel methodology which utilizes multiple models of time-scaling. Results indicate that the allophonic production of /aw/ differs in Canadian English in relation to the other dialects, while /aj/ follows a common pattern in all three. I argue that PVVA is achieved through the gestural reorganization of vowels preceding voiceless coda, with the dynamic nature of diphthongs making possible several patterns of abbreviation, two of which are attested in these data: truncation of the onset i.e. the diphthongal nucleus, and compression of the overall trajectory; truncation of the offset is also attested for some monophthongs. Differences in selection of which of these abbrevatory patterns applies to /aw/ in Canadian English versus other dialects accounts for the observed differences in phonetic output. These results indicate that it is worth reconsidering several aspects of the current conception of CR, as follows. First, diphthong-raising processes can be directly linked to the more common process of vowel abbreviation, with consideration of how diphthongal gestures are organized, and reorganized in relation to post-vocalic voicing gestures. Second, that /aw/-raising appears to be distinctly Canadian. And third, that /aj/-raising is not specifically Canadian, suggesting that the two terms be described and named distinctly. This dissertation contributes to the literature on sociophonetics in two major ways: by indicating how CR is directly connected to PVVA in contemporary speech, beyond their surmised historical connections; and, by developing novel methodology for the analysis of dynamic formant trajectories, involving comparison of different time-scaling methods. / Graduate