Re: CHAT: Blandness (was: Uusisuom's influences)

David Peterson wrote:
>
> In a message dated 4/6/01 8:53:56 PM, hr_oskar@HOTMAIL.COM writes:
>
> << Mm, no; 'pot', 'lot', 'rather' all have [Q], AFAIK. [A] is rare or non-
>
> existent in English dialects (right?). >>
>
> If [A] is the sound I think it is, it exists in every American dipthong
> with
> an "a" sound in it.  (i.e.: kite, light, how, now)  Also, the words "pot",
> "lot" and "rather" EACH have a different sound in my American dialect: the
> first is your [Q], I believe; the second is the backwards c; the last is ae
> (like in cat).
I've got the following (from Seattle, Washington, northwestern US):

site:  [sVIt]
side:  [sAId]
now:  between [naU] and [n&U], tending towards the latter.

I have [Q] in "caught" [kQt] (vs. "cot," [kAt]).

Interestingly enough, my mid and high back vowels have barely any semblance
of rounding at all--"food" is realised almost as [fMUd] in my idiolect. In
fact, I've never met a native (American) English speaker who pronounced /u/
as IPA [u].

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