Hungarian vowel quantity neutralisation as a potential social marker

Abstract

Hungarian is a language with distinctive vowel quantity, but it seems that quantity discrimination in acoustic and perceptual terms is less robust for high vowels than for low ones. In this paper, we argue that the unstable behaviour of high vowels could refer to a sound change from below in Labov's terminology. Due to our results, quantity loss was observed both for high and partly also for mid vowels, especially in unstressed position. The extent of quantity neutralisation showed an interaction with speech style, linguistic attitude, and partly also social status, but not with gender, age-dependent occupation or regional affiliation. © 2010 Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest.