Re: CHAT: [O]

H. S. Teoh sikayal:

> On Fri, Nov 03, 2000 at 07:51:59AM -0600, Danny Wier wrote:
> [snip]
> > I've also heard, this time in "Middle American" (the kind of English you
> > hear on national TV and radio), a rounding of the vowel in "stop", thus
> > [stQp] (not quite [stOp]), instead of the expected [stAp].
> >
> > Is this a new trend in American pronunciation? A sign of unification
> > between the Englishes of the world?
> [snip]
>
> I have no idea... but this kind of vowel rounding sounds British to me.
I haven't heard this, but my first thought is that it's conditioned by the
following bilabial, and not a general change.  Possibility for future
American: minimal contrast between /A/ and /Q/ based on now-lost final
consonants.

>
>
> T
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Jesse S. Bangs jaspax@u.washington.edu
"It is of the new things that men tire--of fashions and proposals and
improvements and change.  It is the old things that startle and
intoxicate.  It is the old things that are young."
-G.K. Chesterton _The Napoleon of Notting Hill_