Retroflex assimilation

[Herbert Stahlke]

An bit of an update.  This morning, in his presentation to the Security
Council, Colin Powell said [@k's,t,r,i:mli].

Herb

-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
Of Herbert Stahlke
Sent: Tuesday, February 04, 2003 11:00 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Retroflex assimilation


For some time I've been noticing non-Southern speakers who assimilate
onset-initial /s/ to an onset-final /r/ in the onset cluster /str/.  I
posted the following on retroflex assimilation on 13 Nov 2000, which I dug
up from the Archive:

"For most Midwesterners I've checked, the /s/ before /r/ is retroflexed, by
assimilation to the /r/, not palato-alveolar.  (If you whisper the words
"shrimp" and "ship", you can hear the difference in oral cavity resonance
clearly.)  This is the same retroflexion found with /t/ and /d/.  I have
found contrasts between Midwestern speakers who say /grosri/ and those who
say /gros,ri/ (comma marks retroflexion) and also for /n at rsri/ vs.
/n at rs,ri/, and I've heard differences between /lVgz,ri/ and lVgZ at rj@s/."

What I'm hearing now, from Lower North speakers in Central Indiana, is
/s,t,rIN/, /s,t,rIp/, etc.  I've heard this for a long time from Southern
speakers but only more recently from Northerners.  I also heard it a couple
days ago on NPR from Cokie Roberts, but I think she's from Louisiana, so,
while her spoken English is pretty much Broadcast Standard, she may retain
Southern s-retroflexion.  For a long time I've also heard Southern speakers
who have /s,/ as a simple onset, in words like /s,IN/, /s,O/, /s,oUp/, etc.,
but I haven't heard it from Northerners.

Has anyone else noticed this apparent northward spread of retroflex
assimilation?

Herb Stahlke