"pellow' and "melk"

[Paul Johnston]

Pellow and melk are also common both in Cleveland, OH and in Kalamazoo, MI.
I always thought it patterned with the Northern Cities Vowel Shift, but from
the other postings, it seems to be a true Midwestern feature, going way into
the Plains and in North Midland as well as Northern areas.  I've been told
some parts of E WI lack it.
Interestingly--my students (from MI) don't react negatively to most NCVS
realizations, even extreme fronting of /a/ or raising/diphthongization of
/ae/, but they laugh out loud at "melk".

Some questions:
Is this lowering conditioned by the preceding labial, the following /l/ or
both?  I'm asking because of a potential similarity to a Scottish backing
rule, whereby the vowel equivalent to our /I/ (usually a centralized [E] can
become [^]:
    (1) between a labial and /l/ (all Central Scots)
    (2) between a labial and anything (mostly West Central Scots)
     (3) between anything and /l/ (some West Central Scots).
    Ulster Scots, a well-known input to Appalachian speech, but also a
(minor) input to the speech of Upper NY State, which then spawned the
dialects of the Great Lakes, has a similar rule to West Central Scots, and
it is conceivable an earlier version might have involved lowering.

Anyone have "pellow", "melk" in Upstate NY?  Downstate doesn't--though that
is one area that can have that /l/-vocalization Alison was referring to.  I
hear that as common from NY City to VA, and west to Pittsburgh, as well as
in AAVE.

Paul Johnston
----- Original Message -----
From: "Susan Burt" <smburt at ILSTU.EDU>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, November 23, 2006 10:20 PM
Subject: Re: "pellow' and "melk"


> ---------------------- Information from the mail
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Susan Burt <smburt at ILSTU.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "pellow' and "melk"
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
>
> We drink a lot of melk here in Ellinois.
>
>
> Susan Burt
>
> Department of English
> Illinois State University
> Normal, IL 61790-4240
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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