“Long” vowels

GOOSE

The main pronunciation of words with the GOOSE vowel is practically the same all around the globe, a high back, rounded [u]. In addition, there are two interesting variants with some currency. It seems that the pronunciation of GOOSE is being fronted, moving to the center of the vocalic space or even beyond, in some socially conditioned varieties in many countries (notably of the southern hemisphere: WhSAfE, AusE and NZE) and regions (notably SAmE), a regional pattern which gives the label “Southern Shift” a truly global outreach (Labov 1994: 202) and establishes interesting sound change parallels between varieties which are geographically fairly widely apart. While the fronting of [u] seems to have received most attention in these broadly “southern” accents, it occurs also in some British (from urban Scots to southwestern English) and American (including CanE, WhMwE, NEngE) dialects. The second major variant is a gliding movement, with the glide being usually a fairly short [ʊu] movement but the onset occasionally also varying between [ɪ] , [ə] and even [ɔ]. This is fairly common in the North of England, in some varieties of AmE, and also in AusE and NZE, though it does not occur at all in the Caribbean and in the African and Asian varieties.