Monday, April 25, 2005, 15:58 GMT
I just noticed that I pronounce these words differently, and from what I have since read, it's a phenomenon that's present in New York (and possibly other areas in the Northeast).
The split manifests as a raising and sometimes a lengthening of the vowel from [{], especially before /b/ /d/ /g/ /S/ /f/ /n/ /m/ and maybe a few others (though there's no definite pattern). The different phoneme seems to appear in "halve" because it is a derivative of "half", which uses the longer phoneme.
Does anyone else have this split?
Also, what do you think is the cause? Some people seem to think it's a case of symmetry with the cot-caught vowels, which are unmerged in New York English.
The split manifests as a raising and sometimes a lengthening of the vowel from [{], especially before /b/ /d/ /g/ /S/ /f/ /n/ /m/ and maybe a few others (though there's no definite pattern). The different phoneme seems to appear in "halve" because it is a derivative of "half", which uses the longer phoneme.
Does anyone else have this split?
Also, what do you think is the cause? Some people seem to think it's a case of symmetry with the cot-caught vowels, which are unmerged in New York English.