back vowel fronting

[Beverly Flanigan]

What Herb is hearing and Dennis is footnoting is indeed common in SE
Ohio:  'pool', ''pull', and even 'pole' may be homophones, all laxed to
either /U/ or /^/ (stressed schwa).  The same goes for 'steel' and 'still'
and 'fail' and 'fell'--laxing to /I/ and /E/.  But this was noted in the
early '70s, at least.  The fronting and gliding that Dave refers to is
different; there's no glide in the centralizing Herb refers to, I suspect.

I'd disagree with Dave on the nonstigmatizing of 'measure' though:  My grad
students in linguistics notice the /e/ pronunciation all the time and
comment on it, as do undergrads from out of this region.  In fact, one grad
student used both pronunciations in one utterance just the other day, and
his listeners jumped on it immediately:  He used /E/ in the noun and /e/ in
the verb and was quite surprised to have the distinction called to his
attention.  He's from Toledo but has been in SE Ohio for 5 years now, and I
suggested that he's picked up the verbal /e/ because the verb is more
commonly used than the noun--I hear it all the time.

At 10:43 AM 9/29/00 -0400, you wrote:
>You woulldn't expect any fronting before l (hence this report on 'pool').
>In fact, the environment before /l/ is the most conservative for
>"backness." (That does not prevent the apparently spreading merger of
>tense-lax before /l/. however.
>
>dInIs (You cain't full me cause I fill too good!)
>
>
> >S E Ohio also has its share of this: the vowels of good and food (but not
> >pool) begin high central and glide back; something similar is the
> >Philadelphian go /gEo/.
> >
> >____________________________________________________________________
> >David Bergdahl          http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~bergdahl            tel:
> >(740) 593-2783
> >366 Ellis Hall     Ohio University  Athens, Ohio 45701-2979       fax:
> >(740) 593-2818
>
>
>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


_____________________________________________
Beverly Olson Flanigan         Department of Linguistics
Ohio University                     Athens, OH  45701
Ph.: (740) 593-4568              Fax: (740) 593-2967
http://www.cats.ohiou.edu/linguistics/dept/flanigan.htm