Re: question on vowel tensing, fronting, backing, ect.

On Dec 11, 2007, at 3:13 PM, Mark J. Reed wrote:

> On Dec 11, 2007 3:43 PM, David J. Peterson <dedalvs@...> wrote:
>
>> Where are you from?  This seems to be a general tendency of
>> Southern Californian English, as is the [-in] pronunciations of
>> "-ing".
>>
>
> I have [-iN] for -ing, and I've only rarely been to CA.  Born in
> MA, raised
> in GA.
>
> In addition to that, the vowels in "bang" and "ban" are phonetically
>> indistinguishable from the vowel in "bane".  It seems to be a
>> consequence of the nasal coda.  However, the vowel in "Ben"
>> was unaffected.
>
>
> IML, "bang", "ban", and "bane" are three separate vowels.   Well,
> the first
> two are similar, but they feel different when I say them; I think
> it's just
> the degree of diphthongalization.  Before [N], /&/ is highly
> diphthongalized
> via an offglide, to something like [&j], while before [n], it's
> only barely
> so, practically a pure [&].
They are three separate vowels/diphthongs for me too (I speak a
southern Wisconsin variety). I've often wondered of the exact
characterization of /&N/; I think it might be (as you said) [&iN],
but sometimes I wonder if it's not a monophthong like [eN] (but it's
definitely not [eiN]). I'm leaning toward [&i].

I have the same vowel/diphthong before /g/. Once I was listening to a
radio station from right across the border in northern Illinois, and
someone called the station, and the DJ said he could tell she was
from Wisconsin from the way she said _bag_. He claimed that people
from Wisconsin say [beig], but I don't recall exactly how she
pronounced it. I only rarely hear [beig] myself; I have the
impression it is from further north in the state, but I'm not sure.

On the other hand, my boss, who lives just over the state line, says
[b&g], which sounds really odd to me. I don't know if anyone else has
a condition where -- for example -- if someone is talking and it
sounds like they have something caught in their throat, you start to
feel like *you* have something in your throat... but I hear someone
say [&g] it makes me feel a little bit like I'm choking. But I'm
weird :)

Finally, there is a song ("Life Goes On") by LeAnn Rimes where she
seems to pronounce _back_ with that same sound, but she's the only
example of that I can think of.

Minimal pairs for me:
hag [h&ig] : Haig [heig]
bag [b&ig] : beg [bEg]
crag [k_hr&ig] : Craig -- sometimes [k_hrEg] and sometimes [k_hreig].

Hank [h&iNk_h] : Henk [hENk_h]

I'm not sure of the exact distribution of the pronunciations of
_Craig_. I think I'm more apt to use the second pronunciation when
it's a last name, but there is a certain amount of variation there,
so I don't know if it's a minimal pair.

>
>
> It's interesting to note that there *is* a distinction for some in
>> the [N] final words with the low vowels.  Marv Albert, for
>> example.  He pronounces words that end in "-ang" as [&N],
>> but pronounces the last name of NBA player Luol Deng as
>> [EN].  I pronounce his last name and "dang" identically.
>
>
> I agree with Albert on this one.   [dEN SaU piN]'s name does not
> rhyme with
> [d&jN].  (Obviously that's the Anglicized pronunciation...)
>
>
> --
> Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>

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