Didn't someone in a.u.e and sci.lang propose this phonemic constrast ... as /t/ in one word and /d/ in the other). Can you identify your two nuclei with those two nuclei? Phonetically, definitely. Phonemically - I guess so. My phonemic

I have come to the sudden realization that I don't pronounce all "-ire" words alike. Some have (ajr), with the same long diphthong I ordinarily have before voiced codas, as in "hide" (hajd), and some have (Vjr), with the

Your comments seem to suggest, innerestingly, that the features we think of as the Great Upper Midwestern Vowel Shift (also ... could rural speech have made any headway in the cities, where "country people" have traditionally been held

) I'm tentatively describing that as "tense a" rather than "ah": ... that have a split short-a system have their tense /& ^/. By Jove, I think you're right! Well, or at least it's a proper subset of that /&