Surprised at the accent in Arizona

Guest   Sun Aug 20, 2006 4:06 pm GMT
I went to Arizona to visit my aunt and her daughter, and I noticed some interesting features in her daughter's speech. For the most part her accent sounded similar to a Californian accent, except: /u/ and /o/ were extremely back and rounded (sounded just like the people in the Fargo movie) and she had Canadian raising of /aI/. I won't comment on my aunt's accent though--although my cousin was born and raised in Arizona, my aunt's accent sounds quite unusual because before moving to Arizona, she grew up in Michigan (Upper peninsula), and spent several years in Tennessee.
Guest   Tue Aug 22, 2006 12:51 am GMT
Another unusual that I found among several speakers is the pronunciation of words that begin with st as sht: so steep was pronounced shteep.
Guest   Tue Aug 29, 2006 10:19 pm GMT
Do New Mexico and Nevada have a similar accent?