Vowels CHOICE

Although the widespread  forms are common in the South, two mutations occur in the South but not elsewhere in North America (except in varieties with Southern roots, such as African American English). The first is breaking, which results in triphthongs such as  and . The second is lowering and/or weakening of the glide, resulting in forms such as [o:ε] and [o:ə]. The latter process is found most often in former plantation areas. Both processes occur mainly for speakers born before 1960. However, before /l/, as in boil, glide weakening is widespread among all age groups and monophthongization to [o] is common. The alternation in which certain CHOICE words derived from Middle English /ui/, e.g., join and poison, show the PRIZE vowel is highly recessive except in hoist/heist.