--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Rob" <magwich78@...> wrote:
> I can't speak for others, but I personally pronounce those /l/'s the
> same: ['rOlr=] and ['sOlr=].
The difference has been observed e.g. by the phonologist Bruce Hayes
in his own idiolect. Bruce was born in Seattle, brought up in Ithaca,
NY, and educated at MIT; he has worked at UCLA for the last 25 years.
I don't know where he picked up this particular trait, but it must
have been somewhere in the US. Similar phenomena (esp. a different
pronunciation of the _vowels_ in the two classes, i.e. the use of an
allophone normally conditioned by a dark /l/ in the "roller" set but
not in "solar") are a normal feature of some British accents.
http://www.linguistics.ucla.edu/people/hayes/gradient.htm
Piotr