Weak vowels in modern RP: An acoustic study of happy-tensing and kit/schwa shift Anne Fabricius Roskilde University ABSTRACT Several changes in consonant and vowel pronunciations in younger generations of native speakers of Received Pronunciation (RP) are currently the object of research interest. In order to further an empirically grounded description of changes in RP, the present study examines variation in weak vowels. Patterns of variation in word-final open weak syllables (happy, city) as well as in past and present 0 plural suffixes (waited, changes ) are investigated acoustically in the interview speech of eight young (born in the late 1970s) speakers of modern RP. The data show variation in happy vowels for some speakers according to phonetic envi- ronment, a phenomenon which deserves further study. kit0schwa variation in the inflectional suffixes studied here shows a tendency to maintain kit-like values. Overall, the study indicates that acoustic analysis of such weak vowels can pro- vide interesting data on variation. Models of standard pronunciations have long been distilled from the ebb and flow of native pronunciations by generations of speakers. Received Pronunciation (RP) as an abstract construct is perhaps the most prominent example of this, its explicit modelling dating back to the early 20th century. In a series of articles, Wells (1990b, 1994, 1997) pondered the implications for a pronunciation model of the different ways of understanding RP: whether as a norm for foreign language teaching, an ideal “ Platonic” notion of correct speech, or a sociolinguistic con- cept, a function of a number of speaker characteristics centered on “socio- economic class, sex and age, perhaps with contextual style” (Wells, 1994:204). His preference was for a sociolinguistically aware notion of RP, as this is the only one that could incorporate changes (in many cases, originating from nonstandard varieties) in native RP pronunciations into the model as they appear and become established and standard. Wells (1990b), for example, recognized sociolinguistic continuity as well as discontinuity among speakers of RP in Daniel Jones’s day and the present time, implying that a sociolinguistically sensitive methodology This article originated as a presentation at the 3rd UK Conference on Language Variation and Change at York University in July 2001. I am very grateful for the comments, critiques, and assistance gen- erously given by Bent Preisler, Inger Mees, Dominic Watt, Paul Foulkes, William Labov, Peter Trudg- ill, Gerry Docherty, Karina Schwarz, and two anonymous referees, all of whom contributed to its progress. I remain responsible for its present form. Language Variation and Change, 14 (2002), 211–237. Printed in the U.S.A. © 2002 Cambridge University Press 0954-3945002 $9.50 DOI; 10.10170S0954394502142037 211