Date: Tue, 14 Oct 1997 15:26:23 -0400

From: Carrie Crockett crocketc[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]GUSUN.GEORGETOWN.EDU

Subject: pre-nasalized stops



I'm new to the list.

I'm a graduate student at Georgetown doing a term paper on pre-nasalized

stops in white Southern English as a result of African and/or African

American influence. So far, I've found very little even in related areas

and next to nothing on my particular feature, which can be positive or

negative in terms of conducting research.



I've noticed this feature in my own speech (I'm a white Southerner) and

believe it may have African or AAVE origins. The feature I'm talking

about is distinct from nasalized vowels. An example would be something

like mboy for boy or ndoor for door especially in emphasized utterances

but also as a general rule. I've done waveform analysis of my own speech

compared to a Californian's and found that many of my /b/ and /d/'s are

not stops at all.



If anyone knows anything about this feature in WSE, AAVE, Creoles, or West

African languages, could you please let me know?



Thanks.



Carrie Leigh Crockett

Sociolinguistics, Georgetown

crocketc[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]gusun.georgetown.edu