Michelle Obama's anticipatory retroflexion

[Herb Stahlke]

As you said.  This is an ongoing change that hasn't been studied much.
 Durian lists only five other studies, two of them earlier versions of
his own.

Herb



On Tue, Aug 26, 2008 at 1:50 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Michelle Obama's anticipatory retroflexion
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> When she said "scrimp," for a split-second, I thought that she'd said
> "shrimp." But, seriously, folks, I didn't notice much peculiar in her
> speech patterns. I heard the phenomenon described, now that it has
> been called to my attention - I YouTubed it. However, I don't find it
> worthy of discussion.
>
> But, as The Philosopher has noted:
>
> "Diffunt strokes for diffunt folks."
>
> -Wilson
>
> On Mon, Aug 25, 2008 at 11:46 PM, Herb Stahlke <hfwstahlke at gmail.com> wrote:
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>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Herb Stahlke <hfwstahlke at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Michelle Obama's anticipatory retroflexion
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> 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."
>> Perseverative retroflexion is common:  Ladefoged gives the example of
>> "hardened" in which the /dnd/ is all retroflexed.  But anticipatory
>> retroflexion isn't so wide-spread.  Does anyone know the dialect
>> distribution of this feature?
>>
>> Herb
>>
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