Bha

[Benjamin Barrett]

I hear the mba(i) with a weak i at the end a lot, too. I think I hear
this from females as well as males.

I'll watch more carefully to determine if the m really is missing.

Benjamin Barrett
Live from Tukwila

-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of Arnold Zwicky
Sent: Thursday, 07 November, 2002 20:52
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Bha


benjamin barrett:
  >A couple years ago, I started noticing males saying bha(i) to me
  >for (good) bye on the phone. The initial sound sounds like an
  >aspirated b.  I've heard this from Kansans, Seattlites and
  >Californians. Has anyone else noticed this? Also, is it used
  >to/between females?

there are several variants to be heard in american english. especially
in the south, you can hear an ingressive b.  all over the place, you can
hear a prenasalized mb (similarly, prenasalized Nk in "o.k.").  i've
never heard an aspirated (that is, murmured) b in "bye".

arnold (zwicky at csli.stanford.edu)