Michelle Obama's anticipatory retroflexion

[Herb Stahlke]

Interesting study.  I've also heard the assimilation in spr and skr
clusters.  In my speech, incidentally, the initial consonant in
"shrimp" is retroflexed, not palato-alveolar.

Herb

On Tue, Aug 26, 2008 at 12:08 AM, Michael Covarrubias
<mcovarru at purdue.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Michael Covarrubias <mcovarru at PURDUE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Michelle Obama's anticipatory retroflexion
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> David Durian has looked at the spread of this feature in Columbus OH.
>
>
> http://repository.upenn.edu/pwpl/vol13/iss2/6/
>
> Herb Stahlke wrote:
>> I noticed stronger and more consistent anticipatory retroflex
>> assimilation in Michelle Obama's speech tonight that I've heard
>> anywhere before.  All cases I noticed of initial /str/ clusters
>> retroflexed the /s/.  In at least one case I heard "was strengthened"
>> with retroflexion extending to the lenis alveolar fricative of "was."
>> ...
>> Herb
>>
>
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