Re: Pre-Kindergarten diphthong analysis

It's still alive and well in Utah, where it is a marker for the local
variety (especially Central Utah). The situation, as I understand it, is
that the low back vowels [A, Q, O] collapsed in two different ways in
Midwestern (US) English. Before /r/, the vowels [Q, O] merged to [O] (or
[o]), but elsewhere [A] and [Q] merged to [A], leaving behind [A] and [O]
(or [o]). The pre-/r/ merger wasn't complete in Utah English (neither was
the [A]/[Q] merger), and in recent decades has even begun to reverse itself.
Along with the pre-lateral laxing found in much of the Western United
States, it makes for some interesting spellings. A colleague saw a sign that
read "HOARSE for SELL" just a few miles south of where I live.

On Sat, Sep 20, 2008 at 11:02 AM, Benct Philip Jonsson <bpj@...>wrote:

> On 2008-09-19 Paul Bennett wrote:
>
>> AFAICT /hor\s/ vs /hO@r\s/ or something similar.
>>
>> There's also the (perhaps only stereotypical modernly) /hOs/ for the
>> former in Southwestern (or Old Western?) USAian, but I'm not sure what
>> the HOARSE would be for that. Maybe /hO@r\s/ again?
>>
>>
> There used to be [hOr\s] or [hQr\s] vs. [hors]
> in some US speech and [hO:s] vs. [hO@s] in RP.
> It was all but died out according to Wells in
> the early eighties.
>
> /BP
>


--
Miapimoquitch: Tcf Pt*p+++12,4(c)v(v/c) W* Mf+++h+++t*a2c*g*n4 Sf++++argh
La----c++d++600

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