Stanley Crouch ...

[Mark Mandel]

On Mon, Jun 15, 2009 at 1:33 PM, Herb Stahlke<hfwstahlke at gmail.com> wrote:
> Wilson,
>
> I heard that "emphatic devoicing" from my own children when they were
> young, "middle" becoming "mittle," for example. Â So it may generalize
> beyond BE speakers. Â My children are fourth generation
> German-Americans.

That word together with that descent suggests another possibility for
this case: that your children have heard the German word "Mittel" used
in English, either in isolation or in some fixed phrases, and taken it
for the "correct" or careful pronunciation of "middle".

m a m

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