Re: Californian vowels [was Re: Liking German]

On Friday, September 28, 2001, at 05:20 PM, Thomas R. Wier wrote:

> Quoting D Tse <exponent@...>:
>
>> << I have a question for you:  is it true that Southern Californians
>> lower [I] before /l/ in "milk" (> [mElk])? I've heard tell that
>> that's the case, but it was entirely anecdotal, so suspect to
>> questioning. (My informant tells me that she was trying to persuade
>> a Southern Californian that Southern Californians do, indeed, have
>> distinct accents just like every other human being, a fact which
>> this Californian was apparently held in doubt.) >>
>>
>> No, I'm not Southern Californian, but I know an acquaintance who has
>> the very annoying speech impediment of pronouncing the word "milk"
>> as /mELk/ (with velar l) and "because" as /b@kUz/. I cringe every
>> time he says either of them :)
>
> Well, where's he from? That pronunciation of "because" is
> actually widespread in Britain.
And I had a physics teacher from the midwest who consistently said [mELk]
for "milk"--I always figured that, along with [nukjul@r] for "nuclear," it
was a regional thing.  To address a later question, I can certainly tell
the difference between [mILk] and [mELk].  ^_^

YHL

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