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Re: Retroflex vowels?

From:Tristan Alexander McLeay <anstouh@...>
Date:Sunday, January 27, 2002, 5:13
On Sat, 26 Jan 2002, Roger Mills wrote:

> Interesting. Amer.Engl. /ow/ (as in pole) and /U/ (as in pull) are > undergoing merger in some dialects-- but mainly before /r/; I think this > started in NYC speech. Thus "sure" and "shore" are becoming homophones or > nearly so. I hadn't heard of it before /l/, but it's not surprising since > /r/ and /l/ are somewhat similar. > I suspect it has more to do with the velarized /l/ than with retroflexion, > though I could be wrong.
Oh, you're catching up with us ;) /O:/ and /U@/ seem to have merged in at least some of England, and /O:/ and /u@/ but not /ju@/* have merged in Australia. Thus, 'shore' and 'sure' are homophones. Exceptions apply, such as /tu@/, 'tour' and /d{u@/, dour (which I believe is /du@/ elsewhere). *Is there some way to express that? It doesn't matter what the sound---if any---before the /u@/ is, so long as it's not a /j/ (before /tj/ > /tS/, /dj/ > /dZ/). Tristan