strange accent

There is this really strange accent that teenagers are using in my area, which is southwestern Pennsylvania. Not everybody does this, though. I would say that about 30-40 percent of my high school classmates speak this way, male and female.

I can't even describe the vowel that they have changed the A into. The long O also seems to be drawn out. A girl sitting beside me in school once said "I didn't even kneh-oo thaht" The vowel sound in "phone" sounds very rounded; it's a sound that many of my peers are producing and I can't even do it. It is a terribly irritating accent and it's associated with teenagers.

Does anybody know about this? It kind of sounds like the "valley girl" accent, but it's a bit different.

The sound that you are describing for /o/ is probably [œy̯] or [ɛy̯]. This is similar to some realizations of /o/ by some younger individuals here in southeastern Wisconsin, which can at times be along the lines of [œy̯], [ɛy̯], or [oy̯], even though [ɵʉ̯] is generally more typical of sucn pronunciations (as opposed to more traditional Upper Midwestern pronunciations of [o] or even [oɔ̯]).

Is it widespread? It almost seems like the kids grow out of it or something.