Reilly Schlaier wrote:
>
> i watched a show about american english on PBS and
> they said that the great lakes area has an odd sound
> change.
> black > bleck
> block > black
> and
> boss > buss
> i was wondering if there were any other vowel shifts in
> this area or any other interesting dialects.
See information on the chain shift here:
http://www.ic.arizona.edu/~lsp/Northeast/ncshift/ncshift.html
I've probably said this before: I used to work on the edge of
Detroit (for eleven years) and I still do most of my work in the
suburbs around Detroit. I've lived my entire fifty years within
fifty miles of Detroit.
I'll take the experts' word on this chain shift, but I personally
have never heard any Detroit-area people speak in this way.
--Ph. D.