Vowel length in Scottish English – The Scottish Vowel Length Rule from an empirical perspective

This paper presents an intriguing problem from the frontier of phonology and morphology in the variety of English spoken in Scotland. Scottish English vowels do not have the short-long distinction common to other accents of English, yet they do show a peculiar durational variation triggered by a set of morpho-phonological factors (a phenomenon called the Scottish Vowel Length Rule). In this paper I will first explore the controversial phonological status of vowel length in the Scottish English vowel system and argue that in some way it has to be encoded in the phonology of Scottish English. Then I go on to review the results of previous empirical studies of the operation of the Scottish Vowel Length Rule and compare these with the preliminary indications from recent Ayrshire data.