Are any of you "un-merging"?
I've always been a low back merger. My pronunciation of the "aw" in "lawful" and "jaw" has always sounded like the "o" vowel in "lottery" and "rock". I've always merged Gulf and Golf and I've merged adult and salt (using the same vowel as "tall"). I've also been a typical "cot/caught" merger. I think that's pretty widespread. people generally can't tell where I'm from or where I was born based on my speech.
Lately, maybe in the past year, I've noticed that I'm un-merging. When I say "law" and "caught" I now use the same vowel sound for both words but it is no longer the same vowel used for both "rock and cot". I still merge the vowels used in "rock" and "cot" with "father" but words that have the "aw", as in paw, law, jaw and "au" as in "caught" or "aught" I pronouce with more of a NY or North Eastern vowel. I now also rhyme "adult" with "cult", which is new for me.
I have not moved to a new geographical location and my personal and professional associations have remained constant over the past few years. I can't pinpoint the reason for this un-merging, but I am very curious to know if anyone else has detected it in their speech. Is this a trend that I'm not aware of but that I'm participating in, somewhat unconciously?
Any thoughts on this are much appreciated!
Yeah, I started unmerging a little, after spending a lot of time with learning about phonetics and phonology and dialects. For awhile I was almost completely unmerged. But now I notice (when I monitor my own speech), that I'm not anymore. If you stop thinking about how you talk you'll probably still have the merger. Now, I notice that my vowel in words like "not" is usually [Q], but sometimes [A]. It all depends on whether I'm smiling when I'm speaking.
-I've always merged Gulf and Golf and I've merged adult and salt (using the same vowel as "tall").-
Spelling does not tell much, I pronounce Gulf with [@] (shwa), Golf and Tall with /A/ (low back unrounded vowel).
When I hear [tQl] (with the rounded vowel) I think of ''toll'', not ''tall''
'' can't pinpoint the reason for this un-merging''
You're growing older. Sociolinguistics show that old people seem to use older forms (non-merger is older than the merger).
<<Yeah, I started unmerging a little, after spending a lot of time with learning about phonetics and phonology and dialects...>
Interesting. You started unmerging when you became aware of your tendancy to merge. Now that I think about it, a little over a year ago I moved in with my girlfriend who is not a native speaker of English. English is actually her third language and she merges vowels that native English speakers don't merge, largely because she often doesn't hear the difference between say, the vowel is "foot" verus the vowel in "food". She rhymes those two words. As a reaction to that I think I may have developed a habit of speaking in a more deliberate manner and I may be paying more attention to my vowels. Perhaps you're right... if I stop paying attention maybe I'll naturally begin merging again. On July 4th I spent the day consuming quite a bit of tequila and some friends commented on some of my pronunciation and I seemed to have reverted temporarily to the old Norther Vowel Shift pronunciation of my youth... at least while I was tipsy. It makes me wonder how much of our pronunciation is monitored unconsciously. That's probably fodder for another thread.
<<Sociolinguistics show that old people seem to use older forms (non-merger is older than the merger).>>
Well then, with luck, by the time I'm 70 I'll have developed an excellent Mid-Atlantic accent to rival that of a 1930s film star! But you may be right.. I haven't read any studies like that but it seems intuitive that older people use older forms. The thing is, the unmerging happened suddenly.
<<Spelling does not tell much, I pronounce Gulf with [@] (shwa), Golf and Tall with /A/ (low back unrounded vowel).>>
I know.. that's frustrating for me because since I don't know exactly what the /A/ sounds like when I read the symbol you used I know I'm not articulating the sound very well in my post. Your reference to the shwa helps though so I understand what you mean by [@].
>> Well then, with luck, by the time I'm 70 I'll have developed an excellent Mid-Atlantic accent to rival that of a 1930s film star! But you may be right.. I haven't read any studies like that but it seems intuitive that older people use older forms. The thing is, the unmerging happened suddenly.
<<
It could be that you identify with the older speakers. Or maybe you were watching older movies or something. Or maybe you're speaking more formally or something. I've noticed that the TV does (very temporarily) influence my speech a bit. When I've watched one too many teen movies, I notice I totally start sounding like a Valley Girl. Or when I watch a very old movie, I sound different as well. When I give a speech or something, I speak very formally, and tend to speak practically General American with little hint of the California vowel shift--except I've noticed I still tend to use a very rounded vowel for cot-caught.
>> I know.. that's frustrating for me because since I don't know exactly what the /A/ sounds like when I read the symbol you used I know I'm not articulating the sound very well in my post. Your reference to the shwa helps though so I understand what you mean by [@]. <<
That's the XSAMPA system. It's an ASCII representation of the International Phonetic Alphabet for typing on computers:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XSAMPA
<<Or maybe you're speaking more formally or something>>
I think that's probably it. In my work environment, although i still work with the same people, I have been involved in more situations where a more formal interaction has been required. Combined with my more deliberate speech due to living with a girlfriend who is a non-native speaker may have contributed to the unmerging.
<<That's the XSAMPA system. It's an ASCII representation of the International Phonetic Alphabet for typing on computers:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XSAMPA>>
Thank you!! That's a huge help. I now completely understand the other Guest's earlier post. Awesome. ("awesome" with a [Q], and no longer a /A/ as in "f/A/ther".) I will be up to speed in no time.
I'll be another year older on Sunday, and as far as I know, I haven't unmerged anything yet!
But I have to admit I've never heard anyone merge adult and salt or golf and gulf.....Adult's always rhymed with cult for me.
So do you say sult or adalt?
<<Salt/adult is pretty common where I live.>>
In Los Angeles? I would have to disagree.
>> But I have to admit I've never heard anyone merge adult and salt or golf and gulf.....Adult's always rhymed with cult for me. <<
I'm from the NW:
adahlt sahlt gahlf gahlf
All have "ah" just like malt
as opposed to cult and difficult which has oh: cohlt (same as colt), difficohlt
I've been watching Beverly Hills (re-runs) and everybody in this show has the SoCal accent (except from Steve who is impersonated by an actor from NJ).
They seem consistent in their realization of the merged vowel: low central to back, unrounded, even the family name Walsh (Brendon and Brenda Walsh) is pronounced with /A/, and not with /Q/. So I guess, roundedness of the merged vowel is still avoided, due to many factors, even lack of prestige.
>> So I guess, roundedness of the merged vowel is still avoided, due to many factors, even lack of prestige. <<
Um lack of prestige? How do you come up with an idea like that? For a c-c merged audience, the difference between [A] and [Q] is about as different as "pin" and "pen" is to a Southerner--they think the two words *are* the same, just another arbitrary spelling difference like "grater" and "greater".