agAin, friEnd, mysElf

Hi,
I know that an "a" sound as in "cat" usually is pronunced differently before n's or m's. It becomes a kind of diphthong (/ɪə/, /eə/ or /ɛə/). Example: Damn ---> could be /deəm/

Now the question is: does this happen with "e" sounds like in "bed"? I always hear millions of different ways of pronouncing vowels, but I wonder if this is typical of a certain dialect. The feature I'm talking about is:
again --> /əgeən/, /əgɛən/, etc. instead of /əgɛn/
friend ---> /freənd/, /frɛənd/, etc. instead of /frɛnd/
I also notice this in other cases, not only when the following sound is an n or m. Example:
myself ---> /maɪseəlf/, /maɪsɛəlf/, etc. instead of /maɪsɛlf/

I think I tend to speak that way. Here's an "again" like the ones I'm talking about (direct link): again.mp3

Thanks

Hi, thanks... I don't think it is Southern, I think I hear that feature in clearly non-southern accents, probalby western accents...
That way, in "My friend doesn't understand", "friend" and "understand" might rhyme...
 

CalifJim wrote:

Rhyming friend to stand sounds peculiar to me, and somewhat Texan, perhaps.  It's definitely not standard.

Thanks.
Well, I'm not an expert on accents... but did you listen to the audio clip? Would you say pronouncing "again" that way sounds southern? I think I've heard that feature from Californians, but I told you, I'm really not sure.

Btw, I read something about "phonemic and non-phonemic æ tensing" on Wikipedia... very interesting, but they only talk about the æ sound:
More widespread among speakers of the Western United States and southern Midwest is a "continuous" system. This resembles the nasal system in that /æ/ is usually raised and tensed to [eə] before nasal consonants, but instead of a sharp divide between high tense [eə] before nasals and low lax [æ] before other consonants, allophones of /æ/ occupy a continuum of varying degrees of height and tenseness between those two extremes, with a variety of phonetic and phonological factors interacting (sometimes differently in different dialects) to determine the height and tenseness of any particular example of /æ/.

Nothing about "e" as in "bed"...

Hi, thank you... I really didn't know that could sound southern. I asked another native speaker to listen to that clip. She knows the character and the series I took that clip from, and she told me that character has a strong southern accent... wow!
Thanks