ABSTRACT
Chapter 7 presents results from a regional acoustic survey of the relationship between vowel and consonant duration in stressed, word-final syllables (VC) conducted across Shetland. The study revisits the discussions of the Norn quantity system in Chapter 5 and the historical evidence presented in Chapter 2 regarding the geographic progression of the Norn-to-Scots shift in Shetland. The framework for the analysis of vowel variation presented in Chapter 5 is utilized. The methodology including participants, speech materials, acoustic analysis, and analytic procedure is stated. The relation between vowel and consonant duration is assessed on the basis of regression analysis and correlation analysis. The results reveal a north-to-south trend across the Shetland archipelago of declining inverse correlational strength, especially for pre-/t/ data. The intra-Shetlandic pattern is additionally compared to available data from Orkney. It is concluded that the pattern revealed by the survey is generally consistent with the northward direction of the spread of Scots across Shetland and the fact that Norn survived the longest in its northernmost parts.
