Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 February 2009
Ferguson (1972) described the distribution of æ and æ: in his native Philadelphia speech and pointed out that these two varieties of low, front vowel have different distributions in different dialects. He ended his paper with a plea for further data collection in more dialects that would lead ‘to better understanding of the synchronic system and to more satisfactory hypotheses about the diachrony’ (1972:273). This paper is in response to his request and consists of a description of the distribution of æ and æ: in my native Melbourne speech.