Date:  Fri, 11 Mar 1994 12:40:53 CST

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

Subject: Re: journalist seeks help



Tim Frazer commented on conscious attempts to change accent. I agree that

accent itself can't be changed by conscious effort -- not in a massive

global sense. But one might change a relatively small pattern, such as

[u] / [ju] after coronal obstruents, as I did in my teenage years. My

language behavior lately, however, has made wonder how global and permanent

the change was. I doubt that I could have been as successful with /I/ and

/E/ before nasal consonants. I can make the I/E distinction in Spanish or

German, but can't do it convincingly in English. When I read Old English

words aloud, I access my "second language" phonological system and make

the distinction, but in no way can I claim any degree of fluency in OE.

I developed my Spanish phonology working in tomato and cotton fields with

pre-bracero-era illegal workers from Mexico in my early teens.  DMLance