strawl

[Herb Stahlke]

I have heard speakers, not just in the South, add "dark /l/" at the end of
words after the vowel /aw/.  I've even heard it before suffixes as in
"drawling" for "drawing."  Phonologically, I think it's the interpretation
of the /U/ quality of final /l/, what linguists call velarization, the
raising of the back of the tongue towards the soft palate.  But why this
happens after a low vowel like /aw/ isn't clear.

Herb


On Sat, May 18, 2013 at 9:19 AM, Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> Subject:      strawl
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> A former student of mine, who teaches in McDonough GA (between Macon and
> Atlanta), sent this:
>
> << There's a landscape place near us that advertises "pinestrawl" for sale
> (not for sell, mind you), and I thought it was just a mistake last spring;
> . . . they have "pinestrawl" for sale (not sell) again this spring. >>
>
> --Charlie
>
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