Re: Not just Cockney,bruv! (was: Revised Eastern Vowel Orthography)

Steg Belsky wrote:

> Isn't this the same thing as in some Rap music?
>
> The song "I'll be Missin' You" (i think) by Sean "Puffy" Combs has the
> phrase:
>
> ...[lajf] after [dEf]..._  for "life after death".
Indeed.  The [T] -> [f], [D] -> [v] phoneme merger is frequent in
many forms of African American English, often including quite
acrolectal forms (where it may be retained as a conscious gesture of
solidarity, though I have no evidence for this), most prominently
in final positions.  I have heard a college professor here in
New York City, whose phonology was otherwise fairly standard,
say [m&f] for "math".

Probably in reaction to this, certain words are often pronounced
by Southern whites with [T] for historic [f], especially where
the spelling gives no clue: thus [tROT] for "trough" instead of
standard [tROf] ~ [tRAf].

--
John Cowan      http://www.ccil.org/~cowan              cowan@ccil.org
        You tollerday donsk?  N.  You tolkatiff scowegian?  Nn.
        You spigotty anglease?  Nnn.  You phonio saxo?  Nnnn.
                Clear all so!  'Tis a Jute.... (Finnegans Wake 16.5)