A possibility?

Douglas G. Wilson douglas at NB.NET
Fri Oct 29 00:09:46 UTC 2004


>Down home in East Texas, black people say, "I ain't got ['nae at n]",
>whereas I would expect to hear, "I ain't got [nOn]," wherein "O" is
>approximately the "aw" of "dawn." Other words with stressed /^n/ have
>the expected pronunciation: fun  one  done  run  gun   bun  sun etc.
>However, after examining "nary," in DARE, it has occurred to me that
>people are perhaps not pronouncing "none" with very strange phonetics.
>Rather, they're saying "I ain't got nary one."

Seems possible to this naif. However note also "nane" /nen/, Scots
equivalent of "none".

>People also say. "I ain't got [nae@'n^dn]" instead of "I ain't got no
>more." That could be "I ain't got nary another one."

Seems possible also.

-- Doug Wilson



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