Glottalisation as a cue to coda consonant voicing in Australian English: a change in progress

Although the presence of glottalisation has long been noted in other varieties of English, its presence has only been described recently for Australian English (AusE) and it remains an under‐researched phenomenon in this variety. We report on an apparen ttime study designed to examine glottalisation as a cue to coda stop voicing in AusE and to determine whether there is any evidence of recent change. We analysed the tempora laspects of voiced and voiceless rhymes in the speech of younger (18-‐36years, n=36) and older (56+years, n=31) groups of male and female speakers. As a baseline, we analysed words in the standard hVt and hVd frame. The results show that glottalisation primarily occurs preceding voiceless codas, as is common in other varieties of English, that female speakers are more likely to employ glottalisation than male speakers, and that younger speakers are more likely to employ glottalisation than older speakers. There is also evidence that younger speakers may exhibit a reduced voicing-­related vowel duration effect. These findings raise questions about the weighting of glottalisation and vowel duration as cues to coda stop voicing and suggest a change in progress regarding the management of the syllable rhyme.