Elm

[Dennis R. Preston]

Rudy,

Yes but I am arrrested (apparently) at this half-way point. I take
this to be an important distinguisher of South Midland and Southern.
I'ma look at it futher.

dInIs



>dInIs:
>
>         Your pronunciation is half-way on the way to a wonderful one my
>cousin from East Texas used, which gave validity to ordered phonological
>rules: she pronounced it /Im/.
>
>         Obviously [Elm] --> [E at m]  --> [Em]  --> [Im]
>
>I've always assumed that she must have heard it originally as [Em] and her
>internal vowel neutralization rule changed that to [Im].
>
>         Rudy

--
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