Vowels GOOSE

Several commentators (Hastings 1979, quoted in Wood 1987: 111; Wood 1987: 128; Lass 1995: 98–99) note that CFE (as well as South African Indian English) is to be distinguished from SAfE by typically having ‘old-fashioned’ (in SAfE terms) realizations for GOOSE, in the area of [u:] – that is, with a marked degree of backing and rounding (as also for FOOT). This is especially noticeable in word-final position. Wood maintains that marked rounding (but not backing) is typical across the social scale, and Lass similarly claims that there is a strong tendency to avoid fronter values even in very standard registers. However, my data revealed that some (mainly L1) speakers do approximate to the more centralized SAfE norm, with [ʉ:]. Both types of realization are typically shortened when unstressed, sometimes making them indistinguishable from FOOT. Realizations are not apparently affected by following /l/.