LL-L "Phonology" 2004.03.18 (03) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 18.MAR.2004 (03) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) N=Northumbrian
S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic V=(West)Flemish Z=Zeelandic (Zeêuws)
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From: Philip Ernest Barber <pbarber at loc.gov>
Subject: unaspirated--phonology

I have to report that as a native of Houston, Texas, I can attest that
it is not only Dutch and certain speakers of L-S who use unaspirated
final plosives.  I remember being exhorted in elementary school (some
sixty years ago)that we had to make "little puffs of air" after final
p's, t's, and k's.  That's pretty good evidence that the local English
variant (which was Upland or Appalachian South rather than Tidewater
South) had no final aspirants. Having spent most of the rest of my life
in the NE US I now speak fairly standard American, but I find that
whenever I visit Texas again, I revert (at least in non-"elevated"
contexts) to my native habits.  I do periodically amaze (and disgust!)
my Romanian-native speaker Minnesotan wife and my New England-raised
children by using that native Houstonian and not aspirating final
plosives.  They can't imagine how I do that, tho I usually point out
that it is a matter of my omitting something rather than adding
something.

And, yes, "Houston" is pronounced, certainly by people of my
generation, "Hyooston" (tho the palatizing is rather weak) so that it
almost sounds as if the intial sound is an "ich-Laut." The final t is
not a d, however, and the final vowel is a short i rather than a schwa.
Texans probably differ on that, but they also differ in how they
pronounce "Texas," whether "Tex-iz" or "Tex-uhz."

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