(along with 40 - 50 million other people in the "Inland North" dialect
These misunderstandings are based on the fact that the Chicago speakers
(along with 40 - 50 million other people in the "Inland North" dialect
including Rochester, Buffalo, Detroit, Syracuse, and other cities of that
region) have a rotation of their short vowels such that the low unrounded
vowel of the "short o" words like drop, socks, block,
and hot is being fronted to the position where other
American dialects have words like that, hat, black, rap,
and sacks, , and where "short e" words like met,
steady and head can sound like mutt,
study and thud or mat, static
and had.