Elm

[Dennis R. Preston]

Rudy,

Now here's the next question for ordering. Can an /I/ derived from an
/E/ participate in (i.e., serve as a "feeder" for) the raising and
tensing of the Southern Shift? That is, can such an /I/ be realized
as something like [iy@]? There are other such wonderfful ordering
curiosities to examine. In some South Midland areas influenced by the
Southern Shift, mid and high lax vowels tense before palatal
continuants (especially /sh/) so that [fIsh] becomes [fiysh]. Now if
this is a feeder to the Southern Shift, we would expect a lowering
(at least of the onset) to [fIysh]. I'ma look at this too.

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

--
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