In an effort to provide greater understanding of the mechanisms of the
diffusion of the low back vowel merger in American English, this study
presents a detailed acoustic analysis of low back vowel systems in the
speech of 114 native nonurban Kentucky speakers of English. The study
reveals unexpected instances of merger in areas of the state that cannot
be explained by current theories of merger. In this respect, it argues
that these instances of low back vowel merger, while they may be an
expansion of an existing merger, result from a distinct mechanism of
merger, that is, merger by glide loss. It is predicted that as elements of
traditional Southern phonology recede, similar merger will be widespread
across the South.This research has been
supported by grants from the Kentucky NSF EPSCoR Research Enhancement
Grant Program and the Institute for Regional Analysis and Public Policy at
Morehead State University. An earlier version of this work was presented
at the South Atlantic American Dialect Society session at SECOL
72.