KCBAss

I am wondering if my ears are faulty. On KCBS San Francisco I often hear KCB-Ass. Those S's seems too low to me, so I hear something close to "ass". I know something similar is part of California Vowel Shift, but that "ass" is the only feature I usually notice (no chain shifts...). And that kind of bothers me...
What to do say about these?

http://www.filenanny.com/files/44f7b9c9f14e0/complete1.mp3
http://www.filenanny.com/files/44f7b9c9f14e0/complete2.mp3

Both sound a lot like "ass" to me as well.

It could be the length, or breaking of the /E/ into /E@/ which is actually how most Americans pronounce /{/, as /{@/ which is leading to the association with "ass".

But I agree with you, my mind 'hears it as'/'translates it into' "ass".

>>It could be the length, or breaking of the /E/ into /E@/ which is actually how most Americans pronounce /{/, as /{@/ which is leading to the association with "ass".<<

This is not really true - such a general shift is limited to dialects with the Northern Cities Vowel Shift (basically northern NAE dialects from Minnesota to upstate New York), and in other dialects generally only occurs in limited environments if at all (such as before /n/). Also, most of such dialects with such a shift have diphthongization of historical /æ/ as something like [ɛə̯] or [ɛ̯æ] (or their equivalents with higher starting points) rather than a monophthong (even though [ɛ̞] or [ɛ] is actually a very common pronunciation of such in dialects here in southeastern Wisconsin).

<<This is not really true - such a general shift is limited to dialects with the Northern Cities Vowel Shift (basically northern NAE dialects from Minnesota to upstate New York), and in other dialects generally only occurs in limited environments if at all (such as before /n/). Also, most of such dialects with such a shift have diphthongization of historical /æ/ as something like [ɛə̯] or [ɛ̯æ] (or their equivalents with higher starting points) rather than a monophthong (even though [ɛ̞] or [ɛ] is actually a very common pronunciation of such in dialects here in southeastern Wisconsin). >>

Okay--
so how would you describe the vowel sound in the two sound bytes above?

they both still sound like "ass" to me

They don't sound like "ass" to me at all. I could see my friends from college turning it "into" a joke like that, but that vowel is not the vowel in "ass".

Wow, then I'm not the only one who hears something like that. But I am a non-native speaker, and that's why I'm looking for opinions.

>>>They don't sound like "ass" to me at all. I could see my friends from college turning it "into" a joke like that, but that vowel is not the vowel in "ass".<<<

So you use that same vowel for the S in USA, or in BED, for example? Are you from California?
That vowel is lower than what I would normally consider an ɛ (IPA)...

>>> [...] and in other dialects generally only occurs in limited environments if at all (such as before /n/). Also, most of such dialects with such a shift have diphthongization of historical /æ/ as something like [ɛə̯] or [ɛ̯æ] (or their equivalents with higher starting points) [...] <<<

Yep, I do that before n or m, for example. But that's another matter, I think. By the way, what do you think of those clips, Travis?

I'm the one who does not hear it as "ass" at all. Yes, I have a Socal accent with some southern (part of the US) regional speech that drops in occasionally.

It sounds like [ɛs] to my ear.
Californian shift of [ɛ] is more common in front of the dark L: yellow, myself [jælo(U), maIsælf].

Shifting of æ --> a is more frequent than shifting of ɛ ---> æ.
While ass is almost always [a:s], es is less frequently [æs]...
(and lost /lAst/ is rarely /lQst/, so you have LAST with the unrounded low front vowel and LOST with the unrounded central do back low vowel)