The Pronunciation of "Blog" in American English
<<In a really narrow transcription, my /o/ phoneme would be [7U] or [7_oU]. The onset is unrounded, being distinguished from RP [@U] mainly by backness. (In semi-narrow transcription of my speech, I write this diphthong as [oU].)>>
I don't even know how to accurately transcribe mine. It's a constant mystery to me. I usually show it as an unrounded /o/ but it's really fronter than that (and may have an accompanying glide). Lazar I know we've said this before but you really need to get a microphone so we can hear your accent sometime :)
My normal /o/ realization can be most simply described as [o] or [o_-], with no real diphthonginess at all. However, in more formal and stressed speech, it can be more like a weakly diphthongal [oU] (yes, the starting point of this is to the front of my [o_-]) word-finally, before other vowels, and sometimes on very stressed syllables. Note, though, that *very* strongly backing it seems to be a relatively recent innovation (as I do not hear it that much amongst middle-aged individuals).
However, more interesting things seem to be happening to /o/ here, and even though I've gone through it before I will go through it yet again here. In some individuals' speech, and seemingly more younger individuals (such as my sister, who is younger than myself), it is taking on more fronted and very diphthongal realizations, usually in positions where normal [oU] could be found, but for some on syllables which more conservative idiolects would not have [oU] present at the same register and level of stress. The extreme case of this is the realization of /o/ as [9Y]; however, most cases are more likely to be just centralized than actually fully fronted, especially outside of heavily stressed speech.
Also, for some and in particular in certain cases, such as in "hello" in particular, it is common to use a rounded high vowel (the extreme case being [y]) here rather than a marked diphthong. However, besides for certain words such as "hello" where the monophthongal realization is quite common, the variation between the use of diphthongal and high monophthongal realizations for such fronting is seemingly idiolect-specific. And again, it is more common in practice to have centralized than fully fronted realizations for this case as well.
The thing though is that while such fronting and either heavy diphthongization or raising of /o/ is more common amongst younger individuals, I have not noticed much with regards to it really becoming dominant at all amongst the younger portions of the population; it is just that some individuals noticably have it, while many other individuals have the more conservative case or the more conservative-like innovation of very rounded monophthongal realization with marked backing.
Quote Travis-" something something something... blah blah something or other"
Cheers for that!
>>Quote Travis-" something something something... blah blah something or other"
Cheers for that!<<
Do I care what you may happen to think?
Yes, you cared enough to reply.
"Yes, you cared enough to reply."
But do others really care for Travy's gibberish?
Kirk, your O is not extreme -- it's just enough to notice!
Kirk, it sounded like "call" was not quite an /A/, especially when you used it in the sentence. Probably because the dark l pulls the vowel back a little. Your fronted o was barely noticeable to my ears because where I'm from the o is *very* fronted.
We have the lot-cloth split here, so jog is not at all like dog. Blog for me has an /A/.
<<Kirk, it sounded like "call" was not quite an /A/, especially when you used it in the sentence. Probably because the dark l pulls the vowel back a little.>>
Yeah I have pre dark l allophones of a few vowels, that's right. However, it still doesn't really sound like [O] to me. Of course, even if it were, it would not be phonemically such but just an allophone (as compared, to, say, real unmerged vowels which are phonemically distinct of course) .
<<We have the lot-cloth split here, so jog is not at all like dog. Blog for me has an /A/.>>
Oh, ok interesting. Sorry, where are you from again?
However, more interesting things seem to be happening to /o/ here, and even though I've gone through it before I will go through it yet again here. In some individuals' speech, and seemingly more younger individuals (such as my sister, who is younger than myself), it is taking on more fronted and very diphthongal realizations, usually in positions where normal [oU] could be found, but for some on syllables which more conservative idiolects would not have [oU] present at the same register and level of stress. The extreme case of this is the realization of /o/ as [9Y]; however, most cases are more likely to be just centralized than actually fully fronted, especially outside of heavily stressed speech.
Also, for some and in particular in certain cases, such as in "hello" in particular, it is common to use a rounded high vowel (the extreme case being [y]) here rather than a marked diphthong. However, besides for certain words such as "hello" where the monophthongal realization is quite common, the variation between the use of diphthongal and high monophthongal realizations for such fronting is seemingly idiolect-specific. And again, it is more common in practice to have centralized than fully fronted realizations for this case as well.
The thing though is that while such fronting and either heavy diphthongization or raising of /o/ is more common amongst younger individuals, I have not noticed much with regards to it really becoming dominant at all amongst the younger portions of the population; it is just that some individuals noticably have it, while many other individuals have the more conservative case or the more conservative-like innovation of very rounded monophthongal realization with marked backing.
Why was the above post, originally by Travis, pasted and reposted by Adam?
Because I'm faking you, Travis!
Don't you see that you can't post the one I posted first?
Blog is pronounced /blak/ or /vluk/ but somtimes they say /flah/