Fronting of Southern British English high-back vowels in articulation and acoustics

The fronting of the two high-back vowels /u:/ and /U/ in Southern British English is very\udwell documented, but mainly in the acoustic domain. This paper presents articulatory (ul-\udtrasound) data, comparing the relative tongue position of these vowels in fronting and non-\udfronting consonantal contexts, i.e. preceding a coronal consonant (food, foot) and preceding\uda coda /l/ (fool, full ). Particular attention is paid to the comparison between articulatory\udresults and corresponding acoustic measurements of F2 in both vowels. Results show that\udthe average dierences between food and foot and their dynamic proles are similar in ar-\udticulation and acoustics. In /u:l/ sequences (fool ), tongue position is more advanced than\udcould be inferred from its low F2. In addition, even though the tongues position in fool and\udfull is clearly distinct, there is no comparable corresponding dierence in F2. This suggests\udthat the common articulatory metaphor that characterises F2 increase as fronting must be\udused cautiously. In the case of English high-back vowel fronting, special attention must be\udpaid to the \udanking consonants when estimating vowel distances. This paper also provides\udspecic recommendations for recording and analysing ultrasound data in research on vowel\udvariation and change