Illigle Iggles; big lig

[Damien Hall]

Earlier, I said:

'Interestingly, though, the same laxing is tested when people are asked to
pronounce 'nearer'-'mirror' and say whether or not they rhyme, and when they
are asked to pronounce 'spirit'-'spear it' and say whether or not they sound
the same.  For many people, old and young alike, 'nearer' and 'mirror' *do*
rhyme, and the same people say that 'spirit' and 'spear it' are only
differentiated by the possible pause between the words in the second pair.  So
that adds the environment before /r/ to the list of places where this laxing
can occur.'

Maybe someone has got in first to correct me, but of course the above paragraph
says it the wrong way around.  The 'nearer'-'mirror' and 'spirit-spear it'
pairs do test the tense /i/ ~ lax /I/ opposition, but of course the
Philadelphia variant is to tense in a position where other dialects would have
lax /I/, before /r/.  So 'nearer' [nir at r] and 'mirror' [mir at r], 'spear it' and
'spirit' both [spirIt].

Therefore not this:

'So, so far we have /i/ -> /I/ possible before /g/, /l/, /gl/ and /r/.'

but instead the observation that strange things seem to happen to /i/ ~ /I/
before liquids and clusters involving them:

/i/ -> /I/ before /g/, /l/ and /gl/ ('big league', '(Pittsburgh) Steelers',
'(Philadelphia) Eagles', 'illegal')
/I/ -> /i/ before /r/ ('mirror', 'spirit').

Sorry about that.

Damien Hall
University of Pennsylvania