Re: Finnish KASKI

On 2008-02-21 06:22, Brian M. Scott wrote:

>
>
> At 7:27:10 PM on Wednesday, February 20, 2008, Patrick Ryan
> wrote:

> > Sorry to be dogmatic, but the tongue is in the central
> > position of the mouth when [a] in father is pronounced or
> > it is not.
>
> For a particular speaker. I've heard native speakers of
> U.S. varieties who use a front [a] in <father>, and others
> who use a back [A], though the most common realization of
> /a/ is neither front nor back.

And it's a vowel very much on the move. The fronting of /a/ towards [æ]
(the position formerly occupied by the CAT vowel) is part of the
Northern Cities Vowel Shift, while in in the California Vowel Shift /a/
is moving in the opposite direction, merging with former /O/ (the CAUGHT
vowel) as a very back [A] (the CAT vowel is also being lowered and
retracted).

Piotr