Re: CHAT: Vowel shift - angry-beaverisms

Brian Betty wrote:
>
> 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.
But how do you pronounce "wood" then?  My lips definitely poosh out a
little
bit when I say "could," but if I talk like my sister's best friend in
California, I'm essentially saying "kid."  Actually, one register up
from
"kud."  I have no comment to make about New English accents. ;-)

> 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.
Well, our dauntless radio announcer pronounces "host" the same way.
/hay-ost/.  So I doubt if it's an angry bjaverism.  Besides, "coast" and
"host" are not spelled with "e"s in them, so I doubt if he's marking the
importance of a word by emphasizing its spelling.

Sjally