which accent do you prefer British or American?

Travis, you said that you distinguish between ''bode'' and ''bowed'' in very formal speech.

<<Of course, the "bowed" which is being referred to is the latter of the two. As for myself, I maintain a distinction between "bode" and "bowed" (as in bent) in only quite formal speech, and merge them as /bod/ -> [bo:d] or [bo:d_0] in all other speech.>>

How do you distinguish them in formal speech?

>>Travis, you said that you distinguish between ''bode'' and ''bowed'' in very formal speech.

<<Of course, the "bowed" which is being referred to is the latter of the two. As for myself, I maintain a distinction between "bode" and "bowed" (as in bent) in only quite formal speech, and merge them as /bod/ -> [bo:d] or [bo:d_0] in all other speech.>>

How do you distinguish them in formal speech?<<

In formal speech I may differentiate them slightly as:

"bode" : /bod/ -> [bo:d]
"bowed" : /boUd/ -> [bo:Ud]

My guess for the reason for this is the reanalysis of the word-final [oU] which shows up in formal speech as being not a word-final or prevocalic allophone but rather a *morpheme-final* allophone of /o/, such that additional affixes after a morpheme ending in /o/ will use [oU] or [o:U] rather than [o] or [o:].

This is unlike my informal speech, where [oU] only exists in the first place in prevocalic positions, and where even word-final /o/ will be realized as either [o] or, due to phonological change that has shown up in some idiolects here and which I will on occasion have when speaking very informally but also emphatically, as [8{] (in others' speech this can be even [2Y] or [2y] or may remonophthongize as [{] or maybe even [Y] or [y] in cases).

One note: the reason for my marking of /boUd/ above for "bowed" is that it does not seem that there is any good way in X-SAMPA of marking morpheme boundaries, which are of practical consequence pronunciation-wise at a phonemic level in my dialect, in particular with respect to the realization of /aI/.

<<Off topic: I believe Trawick and Travis are the same person. How many of you agree with me on that. Their writings suggest me so, same long never end sentences.>>

On topic: Spaceflight's thinly-disguised antics get old. You're still doing a poor job of pulling off different personas, dude.

<<Yeah, the dialectal situation in New England can be quite complex. ;-) Take for example Jerry Remy, a popular sports announcer here who covers Red Sox games. He exhibits classic ENE characteristics, like non-rhotacism, a fronted [a] instead of [A], intrusive R's ("Benoit is"=[bEnwar\Iz]) and the trap-bath split ("ask"=[ask]). But nonetheless he's quite obviously father-bother merged and cot-caught distinct, saying things like [t@mar\oU] ("tomorrow").>>

Ooh that's interesting. Actually, before I knew much about New England accents my hazy impression of a "typical" traditional New England accent was one that "cot-caught" unmerged and nonrhotic, so he would pretty much fit that bill.

<<I figured that he must be from the Providence area, and sure enough I've read that he was born in Fall River, MA, which is right across the border from Rhode Island and sides more with Providence than with Boston dialectally. Another example, more recognizable on a national level, would be Emeril Lagasse (also from Fall River, MA), who likewise exhibits non-rhotacism and the trap-bath split but nonetheless is f-b merged and c-c unmerged.>>

Cool--I wonder if there are any set isoglosses for these features. If there were, it'd be cool to a see a map of where one feature ends and another begins.

<<One note: the reason for my marking of /boUd/ above for "bowed" is that it does not seem that there is any good way in X-SAMPA of marking morpheme boundaries, which are of practical consequence pronunciation-wise at a phonemic level in my dialect, in particular with respect to the realization of /aI/.>>

In the structure of Spanish ling course I just took we just showed morpheme boundaries with hyphens if they were necessary. That would probably work fine here.

<<Cool--I wonder if there are any set isoglosses for these features. If there were, it'd be cool to a see a map of where one feature ends and another begins.>>

Yeah, that would be cool. Here's my (very simplified) impression of the basic divisions, based on the dialect survey and on other things I've read and observed: http://img.photoamp.com/i/oAfrRge.JPG

<<On topic: Spaceflight's thinly-disguised antics get old. You're still doing a poor job of pulling off different personas, dude.>>

It's funny how you only ever accuse one person, while I have many people I could accuse (though I don't accuse them). If you would actually look closer at what that person typed, you'd clearly see that it was written by a nonnative speaker (or are you just so dumb that you can't tell the difference between a native and a nonnative speaker's writing?). I clearly didn't write that, as I'm a native speaker and no native speaker would write like that. Did you not even pay attention to how that person wrote their sentence?

Writing interpretor!,

What makes you think that Trawick and Travis write long never ending sentences? There are many people who do that, so that shouldn't make anyone believe that they are the same person.

yep, Kirk sometimes behave like a moral Police. I have a pity for you, Spaceflight, you have been hard done by his inccessant impeachment of yours on the forum. :)

When I was reading Trawick's posts I felt like I was reading Travis's posts. You see, even sharp-eyed, shrewd, clever, intelligent, person like Lazar had taken him mistakenly for Travis. You see, there is no smoke without fire. :)

Anyway, I have never seen such long sentences that both Trawick and Travis write. In my opinion, Travis should win a guinesse world record for writing trained-size sentences with hands down. :)

Spaceflight, I feel sorry for you. What has you done to Kirk that he is so angry with you?

<<Wow, I'm published now! ;) Hehe, yeah, if you just slip the papers under your pillow at night the whole osmosis thing just might work out...>>


Hehe, Kirk. I only wish.:)

<<I clearly didn't write that, as I'm a native speaker and no native speaker would write like that. Did you not even pay attention to how that person wrote their sentence?>>

Natives can easily make nonnative mistakes in their writing if they're purposely trying to pull of different personas, especially when they've been accused (rightfully so) of transparent writing styles with multiple personas. And nice conversation you're having with yourself...uh-hem "writing interpretor."

<<Yeah, that would be cool. Here's my (very simplified) impression of the basic divisions, based on the dialect survey and on other things I've read and observed: http://img.photoamp.com/i/oAfrRge.JPG>>

Awesome map, Lazar!

<<Natives can easily make nonnative mistakes in their writing if they're purposely trying to pull of different personas, especially when they've been accused (rightfully so) of transparent writing styles with multiple personas. And nice conversation you're having with yourself...uh-hem "writing interpretor.">>

I can tell you with 100% certain that I and writing interpretor are different people. You probably already know that, but just want to insult me. Quit it! Find someone else to insult. I can't deal with it.

<<You see, even sharp-eyed, shrewd, clever, intelligent, person like Lazar had taken him mistakenly for Travis.>>

Thanks for the compliments, but not I didn't. I accidentally referred to Trawick as Trawicks, and thus I humorously suggested that I must have conflated his name with Travis's. If I had thought that he was Travis, then I would have addressed him as "Travis", not as "Trawicks".

<<What has you done to Kirk that he is so angry with you?>>

SpaceFlight constantly posts under aliases (Don, Al, Joe, etc.), each from a different area of the English-speaking world, and has on occasion had conversations with himself under these aliases. When he was caught for this, he apologized and promised never to do so again, yet from this point onward he has continued posting under aliases as usual. He is a troll, who constantly starts threads by quoting an old inflammatory post or nincompoop spelling reform and asking us what we think of it. Kirk has every reason to be angry with him.

<<Awesome map, Lazar!>>

Thanks. ;-)

<<And nice conversation you're having with yourself...uh-hem "writing interpretor.">>

Please read the IP addresses of me and Writing Interpretor before you accuse me of being Writing Interpretor. If you can't, then get mjd or Tom to read them.