Date:  Sun, 7 Jan 1996 00:31:28 CST

From:  "Donald M. Lance" <ENGDL[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MIZZOU1.MISSOURI.EDU>

Subject: Re: American Diphthongs



In recordings of Missourians of German descent, I found [ao] to be

the diphthong used by those who had maintained several other German-

influenced features such as retracted [a]. Of course, they hadn't

retracted the [a] but simply used the sound of the German long a.

Once you start noticing [ao] you'll hear it frequently.  DMLance