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