Dyslexia and English Orthography was "surprise"

[Paul Johnston]

It does occur in a number of US/NAm dialects, though, both in the POT
and CAUGHT classes.  Here in Michigan, though there's plenty of
variability, it's the majority form in CAUGHT.  It occurs in a lot of
dialects for the reflex of a merged COT/CAUGHT class, especially east
of the Mississippi.  A longish version can occur in NORTH in Eastern
New England, and a short one in POT.  So, although the dictionaries
don't always separate it from [O], it's far from a foreign sound to
us.  It's just that an [D] (and, again, I don't know what symbol to
use here, I don't mean eth) vs. [O] phonemic contrast isn't common
over on this side of the pool.

Paul Johnston
On Feb 22, 2009, at 1:43 AM, M Covarrubias wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       M Covarrubias <mcovarru at PURDUE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Dyslexia and English Orthography was "surprise"
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>
> On Feb 21, 2009, at 11:46 PM, Tom Zurinskas wrote:
>
>>
>> Being an American in the "American Dialect Society" I thought I
>> might get an American English word I could hear in m-w.com.  I'm not
>> sure how "pot" sounds in UK, but probably the "awe" vowel, which is
>> ~au in truespel.
>>
>>
>
> it is not the same vowel that you're thinking it is. the description
> you were given is accurate.
>
> the question of whether discussions of dialects other than american
> dialects are appropriate in this forum has been dealt with before.
> whether you believe this is the [[american dialect] society] or the
> [american [dialect society]] doesn't really matter in this case. the
> symbol indicates a sound that is more common in british englishes and
> which few american dictionaries would bother to represent.
>
> if you'd like to hear the vowel visit the following page and click on
> the bottom right-most symbol. (it looks like a script 'a' rotated 180
> degrees)
>
> http://www.phonetics.ucla.edu/course/chapter1/vowels.html
>
> michael
>
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