Tense vowels GOAT

The usual realization in StNfldE is the standard North American upglided [oʊ] variant. As in the case of the FACE set, conservative older (and primarily rural) speakers throughout Newfoundland and Labrador often use non-upglided pronunciations. These may be monophthongal  , or inglided [o^(w)ə] in checked syllables such as boat. For such speakers, non-upglided articulations appear to occur in the full range of GOAT words, that is, irrespective of whether their historical source was monophthongal (e.g. no) or upglided, e.g. know. A recent, though still minor, innovation is the adoption of “mainland-like” centralized [əʊ] or [ɵʊ] variants. This trend is being led by younger upwardly mobile urban speakers, particularly women.