o/u

[Michael Mccafferty]

I bleeve these are dialectal variants, no?



On Thu, 16 Sep 2004, Geoff Davis wrote:

> On Wed, 15 Sep 2004 09:46:35 -0500, idiez at mac.com <idiez at mac.com> wrote:
> > Is there an explanation about when the "o" is pronounced with a "u"
> > sound? Mario just mentioned that it is for long "o"s, but I know from
> > experience that this is not so.
>
> I was pondering over this not more than a day before you posted the
> question.
>
> Two examples I can think of, right off the top of my head, are:
> cal-po:l(-li) => cal-pu:l(-li), and
> teo:(-tl) => teu:(-tl).
>
> In both of these cases the long o becomes u, although I'm not
> sure as to whether the length is preserved.
>
> This is, of course, not to say that long o always becomes u.  I had
> once read that stress played some part in the change.  But, since
> the stress differs in the two examples above and the vowel change
> still occurs, I'm not convinced that theory holds water.
>
> Does anyone else have any ideas?
>
> -Geoff
>
> P.S. I have read that this resulting u is a lax high or mid-high back
> vowel, much like the "oo" in English "book."  Can anyone confirm or
> deny this with certainty?
>
>
>