Re: OT: "Claw" (was "I'm new at this")

On Sunday 24 November 2002 2:51 am, you wrote:
> Replying to Christophe:
>
> All right, we've got to get this straight, because the pronunciation which
> you're saying is normal, I would claim could never exist in any dialect of
> English in any part of the world ever.   Let me make sure we're not getting
> any wires crossed here:
>
> 1.) First, we're talking about the word "claw", which is usually the paw of
> an animal which has with sharp nails.
>
> 2.) [A] is a low, back, unrounded vowel, and [aw] is a front, low,
> unrounded vowel followed by a labio-velar glide (or some sort of high,
> back, rounded coda), forming a diphthong.
> 3.) The word "clod" has [A] ([k_h5A:d]), and the word "cloud" has [aw]
> ([k_h5aw:d]).
> 4.) The word "clawed" is identical to the word "clod" in pronunciation, and
> NOT "cloud".
> 5.) The only other pronunciation of "claw" is [k_h5O], where [O] is an
> open-mid, back, rounded vowel.
>
> Those are the five main possible sticking points that I foresee.   If those
> all hold up, though, and we're not getting any wires cross, then where have
> you heard this pronunciation?   I'd be curious to know, and to see what
> other variations exist in that dialect.
>
My main problem is that 'aa', IMHI(In My Humble Idiolect) is taken up by /A/.
 If he meant /A/, then 'father' would probably be a better example, as
everyone's dialect has that.

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