I have one more vowel than I thought!

[blobert]

One of my favorite linguistic discussions concerning English vowel sounds concerns just how many distinct vowels there are. This topic became ever more interesting when I left Utah for New York and heard English speakers who made vowel sounds that I didn't. One point of difference between me and some (Eastern) friends is in the vowels of pairs such

Comments

[johanna_b]

I can't say I'm completely shocked that the diachronic/dialectal situation is more complicated than people usually believe, but it's cool that someone could actually demonstrate it. Unfortunately, Cornell's subscription doesn't go that far back, so I can't read the actual paper :(.

(I think that /ɔ/ goes with "caught" and /ɑ/ with "cot"???)

Yes. And in my dialect, at least, it has levelled to /ɑ/ (yours, too, I think).

This investigation began because a relative asked me if there was a linguistic term for a phrase or word which is characteristic of an individual.

You can say it's idiolectal, but that might not be quite the sense you're looking for.

just a thought

[anonymous]

Does the term 'ideolect' cover individual's idiosyncratic words and phrases as well as phonology?