isoglosses for hw/w

[Benjamin Barrett]

I missed most of this thread, but the statement that "hem" and "him"
are not distinguished in California seemed amazing to me.

I lived in the Bay Area for a little more than three years and never
noticed this merger. It's possible that I missed it (when I lived
there, other pronunciations were pointed out to me that I had
missed), but I don't think I would miss that one. One impression I
had in California, for example, was that some people born and raised
in California have the cot-caught merger and others do not. Also,
California is a big place with a lot of recent migration.

Could it be that "hem" and "him" is distinguished by some people in
California or at least in some regions, or is it truly unknown anywhere?

Benjamin Barrett
a cyberbreath for language life
livinglanguages.wordpress.com

On Jan 29, 2008, at 7:29 AM, Laurence Horn wrote:

>
>
> At 10:13 AM -0500 1/29/08, David Bowie wrote:
>> From:    Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>>
>>> If North Midland distinguishes between, e.g. "hem, ten" and "him,
>>> tin," a distinction unknown in California, then U.S. West can't
>>> possibly be what happened when North Midland expanded westward.
>>

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