Date:  Mon, 18 Apr 1994 18:57:28 -0400

From:  "Aaron E. Drews" <DREWSA[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]GUVAX.BITNET>

Subject: /ng/ -> /n/ / __T



Recently, Rudy Troike wrote:

> David Johns' great homonym of <lengths>:<links> of /ng/ to /n/ in <length>,

> which I first noticed hearing from James Alatis, who grew

> up in a Greek family in Ohio. For a long time I thought it was

> idiosyncratic, but in recent years I have been hearing it from a

> number of speakers, primarily northeastern, but

> also from some African Americans (mostly Ph.D.s) not from that area.

> I wonder if there is any Atlas survey data on this, or any other information.

> The same change of velar to alveolar nasal also affects <strength>.



    Having the pleasure of working in James Alatis' office, I

decided to see if this /ng/ -> /n/ was true. The conversation sort of

 went like this:



AD :Dean Alatis, how do you say /lengT/ ?

JA :/lenT/ ?

AD: Never mind... that's all I needed to know...



    He also told me that cot is equal to caught for him. One of

the few people I've met here that this is the case.   BTW, I thought

he got his undergrad degree in Ohio, but he grew up in West Virgina.

At least, that's what he tells us.

____________________________________________________________________

Aaron Drews              <drewsa[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]guvax.georgetown.edu>

Georgetown University         <drewsa[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]guvax.bitnet>

School of Languages and Linguistics  "That is something up with

Class of 1996              which I will not put"