CHAD,SHARD&CHARRED in NYC speech?

[Davidhwaet at AOL.COM]

The Boston  "charred"  among common speakers (non-Brahmin)  is somewhat close
to "chad"  to those speakers unfamiliar with Boston speech. The vowel of
"charred" is the lower low front [a] , almost identical to the monophthonged
Southern [aI] which Natalie Maynor has provided for us on her website.  The
digraph [ae] of "chad" is clearly distinct from the [a] of non-rhotic
"charred".  The vowel we don't have in Boston speech is the script <a> or the
low central unrounded vowel.

Dave

David R. Carlson
Amherst MA  (Formerly from Norwood MA, 14 miles South and a little West of
Fenway Park)