Vol. 27 (2026): Volume 27
Graduate Working Papers

Variation in Aspiration within /s + [p, t, k,]/ clusters in Wisconsin and Non-Wisconsin speakers

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  • Martino Mangano
Martino Mangano
Graduate Student

Published 2026-05-01

Keywords

  • sociophonetics,
  • dialectal variation,
  • variation,
  • Wisconsin English,
  • phonetics,
  • aspiration
    • ...More
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How to Cite

Mangano, M. (2026). Variation in Aspiration within /s + [p, t, k,]/ clusters in Wisconsin and Non-Wisconsin speakers. Colorado Research in Linguistics, 27. Retrieved from https://journals.colorado.edu/index.php/cril/article/view/4739

Abstract

Anecdotally, speakers of Wisconsin English have described differences in how Wisconsin English speakers and non-Wisconsin English speakers pronounce /k/ in the word Wisconsin, with Wisconsin English speakers producing an unaspirated [k] and non-Wisconsin English speakers producing an aspirated [kʰ]. This paper uses a variationist phonetic approach to analyze the voice onset time of voiceless stops in /s + [p, t, k,]/ clusters as they are produced by Wisconsin English and non-Wisconsin English speakers. This study selected 16 speakers through snowball sampling with an even distribution of Wisconsin English and non-Wisconsin English speakers. Preliminary results suggest that there is a significant difference in voice onset time in the /k/ in Wisconsin and in the /t/ in /st/ clusters for Wisconsin English and non-Wisconsin English speakers. 

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