Date:  Thu, 1 Dec 1994 09:00:47 EST

From:  Wayne Glowka <wglowka[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MAIL.GAC.PEACHNET.EDU>

Subject: Re: 'the the' names; front vowels before l



>

>On a different topic, a student here at UTA is researching a southern

>dialect feature (also found among rural speakers in Texas) whereby front

>lax vowels become tense and diphthongized before /l/, as in /bijl/ for

>'bill' and /wejl/ for 'well'. Has anything ever been *published* on this?

>

>Thanks,

>Susan



When I was a student at UTA, my friends and I used to adopt this practice

for fun. We were particularly fond too of raising the first vowel in

"Dallas" with a result something like [delIs]--without the diphthongization

(I can't diphthongize the vowel with a following unaccented syllable:

"bill" or "billfold"--yes; "billet"--no; "bell"--yes; "belly"--no).



    (Cf. the pronunciation on Willis Allen Ramsey's album that appeared

sometime in the early seventies and once available for a dollar in Kmart

stores. Ramsey was once a UTA student; his pronunciation may or may not

support these observations completely. I think he got some dialect

coaching.)













Wayne Glowka

Professor of English

Director of Research and Graduate Student Services

Georgia College

Milledgeville, GA 31061

912-453-4222

wglowka[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]mail.gac.peachnet.edu

BITNET Address: Wglowka[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]USCN