Au jus

Geoffrey Steven Nathan geoffnathan at WAYNE.EDU
Mon Jan 23 19:33:02 UTC 2012


The problem is that the original L1 word is an [o], mid tense back rounded vowel, and for most Americans the vowel in 'owe' would suffice.
But....it's spelled funny (by American standards) and for those who have not merged /ah/ and /oh/ (to use Labov's symbols) would pronounce it to rhyme with 'law'. And those who have the merger would also pronounce it to rhyme with 'law' (and also with 'la..a note to follow so').
About the vowel in the second word (IPA [y]) the less said the better...

Geoff

Geoffrey S. Nathan
Faculty Liaison, C&IT
and Professor, Linguistics Program
http://blogs.wayne.edu/proftech/
+1 (313) 577-1259 (C&IT)
+1 (313) 577-8621 (English/Linguistics)

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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