Californian vowels [was Re: Liking German]

Quoting David Peterson <DigitalScream@...>:

>     Oh, indeed.  Southern California English speakers unite around the
> vowel in "good"*, which is not [U] but [U_)] (if that is the symbol for
> unrounded). [U_)] is to [U] as [I] is to [Y].
Hmm. Japanese has an unrounded version of [u], [M], but I think that's
tense rather than lax.  Don't know -- I suppose I could look that up in
Shibatani.

I have a question for you:  is it true that Southern Californians lower
[I] before /l/ in "milk" (> [mElk])? I've heard tell that that's the case,
but it was entirely anecdotal, so suspect to questioning. (My informant
tells me that she was trying to persuade a Southern Californian that
Southern Californians do, indeed, have distinct accents just like every
other human being, a fact which this Californian was apparently held in
doubt.)

==============================
Thomas Wier <trwier@...>

"If a man demands justice, not merely as an abstract concept,
but in setting up the life of a society, and if he holds, further,
that within that society (however defined) all men have equal rights,
then the odds are that his views, sooner rather than later, are going
to set something or someone on fire." Peter Green, in _From Alexander
to Actium_, on Spartan king Cleomenes III