Texan Language

In 2021, Ian Foster constructed a language to speculate what Texan English would phonologically and grammatically be like in the future (around the years 2500-3000 AD). The linguistic features of Texan were based on what currently defines a Texan accent/dialect and how they may affect the language's evolution.

Post-COVID Texan Vowel Shift
In most of central Texas, a major shift in vowels develops relatively soon after the 2020's. This shift is characterized by the cot-caught merger with one half of the Appalachian vowel shift. Note that this shift below happens for stressed vowels that are word-final or before a voiced obstruent."""ɔ → ɑ""ə → ʌ""ai → a""ei → aj""ɛ → ej""æ → ɛ"The shift can be broken down into two different chain shifts. First one is /ɔ/ phonemically merging with /ɑ/, then as a result, /ə/ gets pushed back to [ʌ] or perhaps [ɔ]. The second chain shift starts with monophthongization of /ai/, becoming [a]. This results in /ei/ being lowered towards [aj]. Because of the development of /a/ and the loss of /ei/, /ɛ/ and the trap-vowel /æ/ are realized as [ej] and [ɛ].

In certain word environments where /ai/ monophthongization dosen't occur, the trap-vowel /æ/ is lowered and centralized as [a], because of the cot-caught merger and influence from Western American dialects.

The list of words below demonstrate the vowel shift."""'caught' /kɔt/ → [kɑt]""'gun' /gən/ → [gʌn]""'ride' /ɹaid/ → [ɻad]""'raid' /ɹeid/ → [ɻajd]""'red' /ɹɛd/ → [ɹejd]""'rad' /ɹæd/ → [ɹɛd]"

Vowel Inventory
The Texan vowel inventory is very similar to most American languages, but the arrangement of these vowels vary depending on area.