The California Vowel Shift

[Tom Zurinskas]

The California vowel shift from the Portland Monthly
http://www.portlandmonthlymag.com/news-and-profiles/culture/articles/dude-wheres-my-accent-december-2013

"These days, he’s (Jeff Conn of Portland State) paying special attention to the way Portlanders pronounce words like caught, dude, and no. He’s monitoring those words for signs of a phantom invasion—he wants to know if your dude sounds like di-ood, if your caught sounds like cot, if your no sounds like ne-ow. If any of those mutations is taking root in your speech, you could be part of a transformation known as the California Vowel Shift. First observed in the Bay Area, the phenomenon appears to be spreading."
Yes! - Awe-dropping is called a mutation.

Tom Zurinskas, Conn 20 yrs, Tenn 3, NJ 33, now Fl 9.
See how English spelling links to sounds at http://justpaste.it/ayk



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