blahI have personally noticed that transformation of /æ/ before /ɡ/ is typical speech for a number of people who live in Reno, where I moved 2 years ago after living in San Diego my entire life and never hearing it. Words like bag, drag, fag etc., are pronounced with a /e/ vowel (like the name of the letter A).
Is there any specific geographic location to which this pronunciation in American English is typical? Does the pronunciation in the video even stand out to you at all? My hypothesis is that this vowel "shift" is typical of the San Francisco Bay Area [home to Apple], which would explain the prevalence in Reno due to residents moving there from the Bay Area. Overall, though, his pronunciation strikes me as somewhat ...idiosyncratic. Thoughts?