AAE /hw/

[Dennis R. Preston]

Onset /l/, especially stressed phrase initial /l/, is often
accompanied by "lateral leakage" which provides an acoustic effect
very like aspiration. If your speaker does this and monophthongizes
the /ay/, your mishearing of 'flat' is right on.

dInIs

>>dInIs (who as a result of this speech handicap misunderstood a
>>younger colleague who said 'white' to have said 'wide' just yesterday)
>
>There's a new 100 watt station in town, aptly named WEAK-FM-LP that has
>local weather forecasts in which I consistently mishear "light and variable
>winds" as "FLAT and variable"--now, perhaps, Dennis has supplied an
>explanation: the loss of glide before a voiceless consonant.  However, that
>leaves unresolved the preaspirated (or voiceless?) /l/ and the fronted
>vowel.  Any insights?


--
Dennis R. Preston
University Distinguished Professor
Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic,
        Asian and African Languages
Wells Hall A-740
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1027 USA
Office: (517) 353-0740
Fax: (517) 432-2736