Leveling of /o/ in Raleigh

Beginning in the late 1950s, Raleigh, North Carolina, experienced high levels of in-migration from areas outside of the South. The resulting dialect contact led to leveling of many Southern features, including the Southern Vowel Shift. Change in the front vowel system of Raleigh has been the subject of many studies, but back vowels get less attention. Back vowel fronting is a widespread phenomenon in American English, but whereas back vowels in other regions are back-gliding, much of the South also fronted glides. This study investigates the change in /o/ (GOAT) in Raleigh during the 20th century, using sociolinguistic interview data from NC State’s Raleigh corpus. The findings suggest that where previously /o/ was front- and upgliding, it now has a backward trajectory with little vertical movement. This is in line with previous findings of southern and non-southern variants of back vowels in the urban South and adds to our understanding of leveling in Raleigh. It also suggests future directions for research into the drivers of back vowel fronting.