Date:  Sun, 28 Nov 1993 13:11:24 -0700

From:  Rudy Troike <RTROIKE[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]ARIZVMS.BITNET>

Subject: Re: Mail Order / Pin-Pen / LAGS



Natalie--

    I sympathize re the emergence of an alien /e/ in <pen>, etc. Once

when I was teaching ESL in an intensive program, surrounded by /en/-users

(and /hw/-users), I was distressed to find both /en/ and /hw/ creeping into

my speech unbidden. It really took some effort to repress them. The latter

tends to recur whenever I am doing phonology in an English linguistic class,

and model the <which>:<witch> contrast. As an interesting indication that

I use spelling clues to determine whether a vowel is /In/ or /en/ in foreign

varieties (I follow McDavid in trying to avoid the confusing term "dialect"),

it took me years to find out that "others" use an /e/ in <friend>.

    Hope y'all out there (=Natalie and everyone else on-line) had a good

Thanksgiving.

        --Rudy Troike