Date:  Thu, 25 Apr 1996 09:57:17 -0400

From:  "Dale F.Coye" <CoyeCFAT[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]AOL.COM>

Subject: Re: Epenthetic [l] in _home_



I wonder if hypercorrection is a possibility. Speech teachers are telling

speakers who vocalize /l/ postvocalically to put it back in. In some

dialects words like cold, bolt have a high back vowel instead of velar /l/.

 This is especially common in black English, but I have also heard it in SE

Pa. See Mary Berger's Speak Standard, Too--Add Mainstream English to Your

Talking Style which includes speech drills to get the /l/ back in.  So now

maybe we're getting hypercorrection with words like home being added to the

"insert /l/" list of words.



Dale Coye

Carnegie Foundation

Princeton