_Break nasty_ = "jump salty"

[Geoff Nathan]

FWIW the Northern Cities Vowel Shift is reported to include this sound change, although I must admit I frequently have trouble hearing it despite living here. And reputedly Black folk here in the D *don't* have the shift E > ^ although this is just academic rumor.  They do participate in the ae > E@ change, however. Unfortunately, nobody since Penny Eckert in the seventies has looked at vowels in Detroit and I'm so busy doing other things that I don't have time. Besides there's the hassle of the IRB application.

Geoff

Geoffrey S. Nathan
Faculty Liaison, C&IT
and Associate Professor, Linguistics Program
+1 (313) 577-1259 (C&IT)
+1 (313) 577-8621 (English/Linguistics)


>
> We, colored folk, pronounce "steady, sledge, flesh," and a heap of
> other words with [^] as the stressed vowel in places wherein the
> standard pronunciation is [E].
>

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