Vowels BATH, DANCE

Most younger Southerners make no distinction between BATH and TRAP. White Southerners born before World War II, however, often do distinguish the two classes, though in a way unique to the American South. For such speakers, BATH shows an upglide. The most common realization is [æε] , but variations such as [æe]  and [aæ] occur. Some speakers who show these forms also show lowering of the FACE vowel; they distinguish pairs such as pass and pace by the height of the glide, which is mid for BATH words and high for FACE words. Many Southerners produce the same [æε] diphthong in the DANCE class (i.e., words in which RP shows [a:] before a nasal/obstruent cluster). Upgliding BATH and DANCE forms are widespread in the South Atlantic states, but are absent in three areas: around the Chesapeake Bay, around the Pamlico Sound, and in the Low Country of South Carolina. In the Gulf states, they occur everywhere–except perhaps southern Louisiana–but are most common in the Appalachian and Ozark Mountains and in the Piney Woods belt.

In a number of BATH and DANCE words – today usually only aunt or rather but in former times many others, such as pasture – some speakers show the vowel of START (in non-rhotic varieties) or LOT. This tendency most likely originated as an imitation of fashionable British usage rather than as a trait inherited from the earliest settlers. It is most prevalent in eastern Virginia.