Re: SoCal vowels (was Re: sending mail to the list)

In a message dated 5/3/01 9:51:44 AM, pearson@HUMNET.UCLA.EDU writes:

<< This is an interesting hypothesis.  So do you have the same contrast
between
"could" (more rounded) and "good" (less rounded)?  We should test this
systematically:
If Steg's guess is right, then the vowels in column A should all sound the
same, and the vowels in column B should all sound the same, and the vowels in
column A should sound different from the vowels in column B...

  A        B
  put      book
  took     look
  could    good
  soot     rook
  foot     crook
  should
  shook
  cook
  hook
 >>

    Not...quite.  "Put", "took", and "foot" all sound the same out of my
mouth (with a true [U]).  The rest, though, how that other sound.  And that
word "soot" gives me fits!  Maybe it's because I've never used it very much
in my life, but no matter which way I pronounce it it sounds odd.  So, based
on this new data with me, I'd say it isn't simply a voiced/unvoiced
distinction.  I think it's frontness.  And, you know, the more I try it,
"soot" has [U], so I think it's everything voiceless  from the alveolar and
forward (not post-alveolar, however).  Have any data starting with [T]?  I
don't think there are any words, are there...?

-David