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CHAT: Vowel shift - angry-beaverisms

From:Brian Betty <bbetty@...>
Date:Friday, June 18, 1999, 15:46
Sally wrote: "Well I don't know about Southern England, but a shift has
been going on in parts of California, which is my old neck of the woods,
and that is the unrounding of certain vowels.  Instead of saying could,
would, should as /kUId/ /wUId/ /SUId/ we've been hearing something half way
towards /I/: /k?d/ /w?d/ /S?d/.  There's no rounding of the lips at all."

My lips don't move at all when I say could, and my would is clearly
homophonous with wood. It's all about context, baby! That's my New English
accent.

And while some say /kowst/, I still say /ko:st/ (no -w offglide). I think
you are talking about an angry-beaverism, defined as marking the importance
of a word by pronouncing it by its English spelling. Like saying: /beh-AVR/
for "beaver."  The Angry Bjavrs never angry-beaverise more than one word a
sentence for clarity reasons.
.

(8-0)
Monkeygod
41482969
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