Originally Posted By: Faldage
The final W in words such as cow and shadow definitely sounded like a normal initial W when the word was played backwards.


Yes, but I think it's misleading to call it the final W. You would also hear it in words like bough, foe, so which don't have a final written w. It's because these two sounds are diphthongs in your dialect, something like /aʊ/ and /oʊ/ (maybe, I'm guessing you're American). They consist of two sounds, and the second sound is almost identical to /w/ in articulatory terms.

Last edited by goofy; 06/29/2011 1:31 PM.