California vowels

[Tom Kysilko]

Just curious, Beverly:  where was the stress?
--Tom Kysilko

At 1/31/2005 04:08 PM -0500, Beverly Flanigan wrote:
>Here's a question:  I saw "Sideways" yesterday (so-so...) and noticed that
>the buddy character played by Haden Church (or Church Haden?) said for Okay
>[ok@] or possibly [okE].  Is this backing or laxing common in California
>speech?  The presentation on Southern CA speech at ADS noted lowered and
>backed /ae/ and /E/, but not this /e/ --> /E/ or /@/.  Might /e/ have gone
>to /E/ first and then to /@/?  The guy also had fronted /o/ but I didn't
>hear fronted /u/, though I may have missed it; the ADS speaker claimed
>u-fronting is more common but admitted this is disputed.