Re: Phonetics

>
> It is indeed a well-known feature of Black English, but has also been
> reported from some Southern accents before a following labial or velar
> according to Wells 1982), so that help [he@...] rhymes with step [ste@...]
> (/e/ is "broken", i.e. diphthongised before a following /p/ in the
> drawled pronunciation of the South). The pronunciation is stigmatised
> even locally; "hick" or "low-class" was how some American informants
> characterised it.
>
> According to many authors Southern dark /l/ may also be replaced by

the

> velar lateral [L], a curious articulation in which the back of the

tongue is > raised and no contact is made by the tip or the blade of
the tongue. It

> is used especially after /@/ (schwa) and lax /u/, with which it

coalesces

> into a syllabic lateral: wolf [wL:f], bull [bL:].
>

I stand corrected. I had forgotten about the velar lateral -- living in
Miami, I don't hear southern speech very often anymore. I believe it
also
applies to "help"; it might that what is stigmatized is replacing [L]
with
null. Do you know which group the informants belonged to?

>
> Wells provides a firsthand report and a detailed description of
> "imperfect laterals" (with no alveolar contact) in NYC. Other authors
> also describe this pronunciation, apparently "not confined to
> uncultivated speech".
>
> As for my own experience, I recall hearing vocalised Ls in recordings

of

> Philadelphia English collected by Sharon Ash. They were used not only

in

> the word-final position but also intervocalically!
>

Given word-final vocalised L's, intervocal vocalised L's would be
expected,
provided that they were also stem-final. Do you remember the specific
examples?

>
> Piotr
>

Thanks,
Jeff