Re: Californian vowels [was Re: Liking German]

In a message dated 10/1/01 12:29:21 AM Pacific Daylight Time, AL260@AOL.COM
writes:


> Also, bringing this thread back to its roots, I'd like to address something
> I've noticed in the speech of a friend of mine from LA.
>
> I can't remember all of the particulars but I'll try to elucidate some of
> what I hear.
>
> In his speech the vowel /u/ becomes /y/ or something close to that in some
> environments. Right now I don't really remember what those environments
> might be but a few of the words I remember are:
>
> food /fyd/
> too /ty/
I'm a Californian (Northern, but my mother is from L.A.), and I know
exactly what you mean.  Pronouncing it myself and trying to note what
I'm doing, I'd describe it as a partial unrounding of the vowel, combined
with moving it back somewhat.  In fact, it feels a bit like what you do to
pronounce the unrounded back vowel in Russian, only not as far away
from English /u/.

I'm not sure of the environment that causes it either; certainly many
speakers, myself and my mother included, do it only intermittently.

I hope this sheds some light on the subject.

As a side-note, this is my first post to the list.  I'm happy to be here
and look forward to many interesting discussions.

Joey Morlan

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