Lax vowel

[Herb Stahlke]

I've seen two different transcriptions, the open o and the low back rounded vowel.  In my speech, SE Michigan, I have the low back rounded vowel.  My open o is found only in the /OI/ diphthong and in /Or/.  As a stressed vowel otherwise, I have low back rounded.  I've checked this with the speech of my Central Indiana students, and I find the same distribution.  However, in those undergraduate classes where I have to teach phonetic transcription I find that they grasp open o for both better than the more accurate contrast.

Herb Stahlke

<<< aaron at LING.ED.AC.UK  7/ 4  3:06p >>>
Dear all (especially the phonologists),

        In North America, what is _conventionally_ described as the lax
counterpart to the /o/ of _boat, groan_?  As an undergraduate, I was
taught that it was the open-o /O/ of _thought, caught_.  Is this still
what is taught and practised?  Here, a different vowel is described as
/o/'s lax counterpart, a description I prefer.  I'm trying to reconcile
these two schools of thought in my current chapter.

        Cheers,
                Aaron

________________________________________________________________________
Aaron E. Drews                               The University of Edinburgh
aaron at ling.ed.ac.uk                  Departments of English Language and
http://www.ling.ed.ac.uk/~aaron       Theoretical & Applied  Linguistics

"MERE ACCUMULATION OF OBSERVATIONAL EVIDENCE IS NOT PROOF"
        --Death