quest for info/suggestions. re: dialects

[Dennis R. Preston]

Poor ole Bill; catchin' hell for accommodatin'.

dInIs

>I never saw a Southerner spell "damyankee" as two words before. ;{)
>----- Original Message -----
>From: William H. Smith <wh5mith at ATL.MINDSPRING.COM>
>To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Sent: Tuesday, October 05, 1999 10:49 PM
>Subject: Re: quest for info/suggestions. re: dialects
>
>
>> In real English (i.e. Southern), "-ing" is pronounced [In] when
>unstressed.
>> Thus, we have "nothin'" and "somethin'."  In trisyllabics like "anything"
>> and "everything," the "-ing" has secondary stress and thus retains the
>velar
>> nasal.  Them damn yankees ain't smart enough to catch that difference.
>> Bill
>>
>>
>> At 07:17 PM 10/3/99 -0500, you wrote:
>> >>  But I stil cringe when I hear strength
>> >> pronounced "strenth" rather than "straingth" like all normal,
>> >
>> >This somehow reminds me of something I've meant to mention before.
>> >Why do so many of the Southern-accent-fakers in movies pronounce
>> >"anything" with the last syllable sounding like "thin"?  I've never
>> >heard any Southerner do that.  We raise the vowel slightly, as one
>> >might expect before a nasal, and we have a strong [ng] (nasal velar).
>> >   --Natalie Maynor (maynor at ra.msstate.edu)
>> >

Dennis R. Preston
Professor of Linguistics
Department of Linguistics and Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
preston at pilot.msu.edu
Office: (517)353-0740
Fax: (517)432-2736