[Ads-l] almond

[Laurence Horn]

> On May 26, 2016, at 5:50 PM, Arnold M. Zwicky <zwicky at stanford.edu> wrote:
> 
>> On May 26, 2016, at 7:30 AM, Joan Hall <jdhall at WISC.EDU> wrote:
>> 
>> DARE says that pronunciations with an "open o" and no "l" are "infrequent. It also shows that pronunciations with an ash are especially frequent in California, where they are grown.
> 
> i suspect this ash (rather than ah) is an instance of Patriotic Vowels, with ah perceived as foreign --  in particular, British, or more significantly, (Mexican) Spanish in areas where there are significant numbers of such speakers (who are popularly categorized as foreigners, no matter how long they've been residents, even unto 150 years).  lots of this in place names: Colorado, Nevada, Los Gatos, Los Altos, Palo Alto, etc.).  
> 
> the idea is that "almond" with ah is Mexican, while ash is Real American.
> 
> arnold

I wonder if frequency may be a factor here (as it is with many of the place names that turn [a] into ash (as in Arnold's examples) or the reduction of [i} into schwa (Louisville, Missouri), depending on stress.  That would correlate with the [ae] pronunciation for "almond" being most frequent in California among those who grow them.  

LH

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