Table 5.

Results of the linear multiple regression analysis on the acoustic-phonetic properties and perceptual categorization responses. For each of the dialect groups, the significant acoustic measures are shown with their regression coefficients and the overall r² showing model fit

	Significant variables	Regression coefficients	Overall r2
New England	r-fulness	−0.36	0.39
	/æ/ backness	0.34
	/oʊ/ diphthong	−0.22
	vowel brightness	0.21
North	/oʊ/ diphthong	−0.38	0.27
	/u/ backness	0.29
North Midland	/oɪ/ diphthong	0.56	0.31
South Midland	/u/ backness	−0.26	0.38
	vowel brightness	−0.34
	fricative voicing	0.33
South	/oɪ/ diphthong	−0.39	0.49
	/oʊ/ diphthong	0.33
	/u/ backness	−0.33
	/oʊ/ backness	0.31
	/æ/ diphthong	0.20
West	/oɪ/ diphthong	0.40	0.16