Re: Hi there & Blitherings

Adrian Morgan wrote:
>The things that most stand out about typical American speech to an
>Australian are, I think:
>
>  - it being rhotic;
>  - "pot" being unrounded (example);
>  - "new" not having a [j] in it (example);
>  - "man" being [m{@n] rather than [m{n] (example)
>
No argument with the first three; "man" [m{@n] however would be better
transcribed to show that the [@] is merely a glide, not fully syllabic
(though it might be in Deep South speech).  Its presence is due to (1)
lengthening, in monosyllables, of all vowels preceding a final voiced
segment; (2) the movement of the front of the tongue from very low [{]
position up to the very high alveolar [n]-- so the schwa glide also is heard
before /d, z/ and occasionally before /t/ in slow speech.  It tends to occur
also, in monosyllables,  with /E/ plus [voiced alveolars] (bed, hen, says).