staving Larry Sulky:
>I think I must have totally missed everybody's points. I didn't
>realise that the existence of [V], [U], or [@] in at least some
>American English dialects was in question. I'm from the American west
>coast, with influences from the American midwest and Toronto, Ontario.
My Middle Class Northern English appears to have no [@] or [V]
>I pronounce "but" and the "a" in "about" as [V].
[bUt], [&baut]
>I pronounce "foot" and "put" as [U].
[fUt], [pUt]
>I pronounce "boot" and "loon" as [u].
[but], [lun] (or possibly [bu:t], [lu:n]
>I pronounce the "i" in "hobbit" as [@].
[hObIt]
Pete