Date: Fri, 7 Apr 1995 10:25:11 -0400 From: Wayne Glowka Subject: Re: Southern Shuft >It is important to add, I believe, that (at least to Northerners) BIT sounds a >little like BEET and BET a little like BAIT. >If all this is so, then isn't it the case that the tense vowels are falling >and the lax ones raising? >Dennis Preston I will defer to a professional, but I'd say the opposite is true in Central Georgia. BIT sounds like [bixt] x = schwa BET sounds like [bext] BEET sounds like [bxit] BAIT sounds like [b[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]eit] or [baeit] Full of [bxinz], Wayne Glowka Professor of English Director of Research and Graduate Student Services Georgia College Milledgeville, GA 31061 912-453-4222 wglowka[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]mail.gac.peachnet.edu