Stress patterns on words spelled with final <el> (long posting)

[David Bergdahl]

This is just a guess, but could the final [El] come from avoidance of
syllabic-L rather than [@l] or [?l] ?  The "swallowing" of the vowel
could be heard by non-southerners as uneducated and as such to be
avoided.  Even [Il] --which I find n atural in some of the words cited--
might be heard as "slurring" and so to be avoided.  Again, just a guess.

-- db, whose name is pronounced ['b3g d?l] by a colleague originally
from NC
___________________________________________________________
David Bergdahl                 einstein at frognet.net     tel: (740)
592-1617
home page: http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~bergdahl    fax: (740) 593-3857