These are the times that try men’s souls.
“As in many dialects of American English, [æ] before [n] [m] or [l] standardly change to a diphthong [ə]. This new phoneme often merges into [æ]. Syllabic r as in ‘hurt’ is a rhotacized mid-front vowel, rather than a rhotacized mid-central vowel. Vocalic nuclei are rarely rounded. [l] is “dark” (i.e. velarized), and sometimes purely velar, postvocalically and often in other positions. Epenthetic r occurs after vowels in a small number of words. When not monophthongized, the nuclei of diphthongs shift toward [æ], especially in enunciated speech: [eI] becomes [æ] or [æI], [iː] becomes [I], [uː] becomes [IU], and [oU] becomes [əU] or [EU], quod erat demonstrandum [sic]. This appears to be on the increase.”
