Phonemic vowel length

[David Sutcliffe]

Can someone help me out on phonemic length in North American English vowel systems.
Specifically, to what extent is the traditional difference in phonemic length in vowels still extant in US dialects? It's very clearly there in the Ex slave AAE speakers (I've listened to these extensively) and may be now replaced by the tense lax distinction in white varieties,  at least in the northern cities (?)

In any case, physical length may be another distinction that once lost is difficult to recover. I still have it in my speech (SE England), at least enough to distinguish length in others,  but the distinction may be on the way out in southern England too.

David Sutcliffe

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