how new yorker pronounce "a" in "father"

nick   Tue Apr 15, 2008 3:36 am GMT
I can hear the difference between "cot" and "caught" in new york city.how new yorker pronounce "a" in "father"? How u put the tongue and round or unround your lip? Thank you!
Milton   Tue Apr 15, 2008 1:43 pm GMT
Which New Yorker?
Fran Drescher uses a low-to-slightlyraised central-to-back not fully rounded A, something between /A/ and /Q/ (or even /O/). It's different from her vowel in ''god, doll, dollar, pop'' [which all have] central unrounded low /A/)
guest   Tue Apr 15, 2008 3:02 pm GMT
I knew someone once from Upstate (Ithaca) who pronounced the 'a' in father like /A/, almost raising it to the point of /{/ as in 'that'/'bath' (American)

drove me baNANAs
Levee   Tue Apr 15, 2008 3:43 pm GMT
Many people in NYC pronounce the PALM words (like father, calm, bravado etc.) and the START words with a vowel intermediate between the /O/ of THOUGHT and the /A/ of LOT. So neither the Cot-caught merger nor the Father-bother merger occurs (although many people have the Father-bother merger). It's typical there to hear a slightly fronted [A] for LOT, [Q] for PALM/START and something like [o@] for THOUGHT.
In UPSTATE New York, however, the PALM and START words have the same vowel as LOT (a fronted [A] or even [a]) and THOUGHT has [O(@)] or [Q].
Levee   Tue Apr 15, 2008 7:51 pm GMT
But the PALM/START vowel is very often rather [Q:] than [A@]. And in this way the PALM/START can be different even from the [A@] of "cod".
Labov et al. report in the Phonological Atlas tha people keep the PALM words distinct from the LOT words by having a more backed, raised and rounded vowel in PALM.
Guest   Tue Apr 15, 2008 7:56 pm GMT
''Labov et al. report in the Phonological Atlas tha people keep the PALM words distinct from the LOT words by having a more backed, raised and rounded vowel in PALM.''

But, it's a conditional change.
Many vowels suffer when followed by a dark L.
Lazar   Tue Apr 15, 2008 8:53 pm GMT
<<But, it's a conditional change.
Many vowels suffer when followed by a dark L.>>

No, that's not what Labov meant. The PALM set refers to the historical phoneme /A:/, not specifically to the word "palm". What Labov was saying applies to the historical phoneme /A:/ in general, which is realized by some New Yorkers as [Q:].