/bolth/ for both

[Matthew Gordon]

I haven't been following this thread so forgive me if this observation has
been made already.
I don't see how it could be related to the Northern Cities Shift which
involves, mostly short vowels.
A more plausible connection is with /o/ fronting which is common across the
Midlands (and elsewhere). Importantly /o/ is generally resistent to fronting
when it appears before /l/. So the back [o] allophone comes to be associated
with /ol/ context and thus an /l/ is inserted unetymologically.
I think J. Ohala has written on this phenomenon.


On 4/6/05 12:14 PM, "Greg Pulliam" <pulliam at IIT.EDU> wrote:

> Maybe the /bolth/ pronunciation is related to the northern cities
> shift?  A movement (in just this word or a few words right now) of
> the /o/ vowel slightly back or down, the result of which more sounds
> like, than actually is, /bolth/.
>
> Greg
>
>
>> I've never heard "bolth" or "polm"
>>
>> I have always pronounced the "l" in "almond", even
>> after having been corrected.  Doesn't the voice in the
>> TV ads for Almond Joy pronounce the "l"? (I haven't
>> heard an ad for Almond Joy in a long, long time.)
>>
>> FWIW, I say "nucular" more often than not, and I don't
>> pronounce the "t" in "often" or "soften.  (On Wheel of
>> Fortune a while back, a woman had part of the word
>> "soften" on the board as part of a phrase - something
>> like "**ften" - and when she correctly completed the
>> phrase she pronounced the "t", followed by a look of
>> confusion or puzzlement on her face as she realized
>> what she'd said.)
>>
>> --- Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM> wrote:
>>>  FWIW, never heard "bolth" or "polm" round here - or
>>>  anywhere else. "Almond" pronounced with all the
>>>  letters, yes; also in NYC in the '50s.
>>
>>
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>>
>>
>>
>>
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>
> --
> -
> Greg
>
> http://www.pulliam.org