Back Vowel Phonemes

[Dennis R. Preston]

Doug,

Dang! Just fix up one or two here or there (and stop that silly Goth-
variation stuff) and you could talk good like me.

dInIs

>Another example: myself (SE MI):
>
>[/a/ unrounded; /)/ rounded and farther back]
>
>cop, cob, cot, cod, cock = a
>[caught, caudal, caulk = )]
>cog, dog, frog = )
>lost, loss, toss = )
>horror = )
>on = ) ... but definitely sometimes a
>upon = ) ... maybe sometimes a
>off = )
>water = a
>wash = )
>watch, swatch, swat = a
>Chicago = a
>
>When I thought about this subject and tried a few examples, I realized that
>I use
>
>gothic [gothic typeface, gothic horror story] = a
>Goth, Gothic [Gothic language, Gothic tribes] = )
>
>Probably this is merely an idiosyncratic error, but I've never been called
>on it. I suppose I knew 'gothic' before I ever heard of Goths. For comparison
>
>moth, sloth, broth = )
>apothecary, hypothesis = a
>
>-- Doug Wilson


Dennis R. Preston
Department of Linguistics and Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
preston at pilot.msu.edu
Office: (517)353-0740
Fax: (517)432-2736