Dawgs

[Wilson Gray]

Beverly asks, "The full open O doesn't glide into /U/ easily, does it?"

It seems to me that "easy" and "easily" are ill-defined WRT speech. A
native speaker of Czech once asked me, "Is there, in English, a
distinction between the 'vippink' of 'vippink krim' and the 'vippink'
of 'vippink villo'"? Another time, a native speaker of Israeli Hebrew
asked me, "Is there any difference between the boy's name [jOn] and
the girl's name [jOn]?"

It was all that I could do to keep from bursting into laughter. The
distinction between the vowels of "whipping" and "weeping" or those of
"John" and "Joan" is so "easy" to hear - to a native speaker of
English - that I was caught totally off guard. I nearly ejaculated,
"Are you serious? Those vowels aren't *anything* alike!"

-Wilson

On 10/25/06, Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at ohio.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OHIO.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Dawgs
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Actually, I'll modify my vowel a bit: In this area, at least, the core
> vowel is midway between /a/ and /O/, the so-called "turned script a".  It's
> in IPA, and Kurath & McDavid use it in their West PA/eastern OH/general
> Appalachian transcriptions extensively.  The full open O doesn't glide into
> /U/ easily, does it?  The "turned script a" is what Wells uses for British
> English "pot" too.  I just elicited it today from an Ohio grad student who
> has homophonous 'cot' and 'caught' but with this midway vowel, not either
> /a/ or /O/.  It's also in Ontario, and it's the vowel in homophonous 'Don'
> and 'dawn' in western PA.  Is this a bit closer to what you're hearing in
> "dog"?
>
> At 04:03 PM 10/25/2006, you wrote:
> >I just gotta say, Beverly: the core vowel I hear in "dog" in
> >Appalachian/Inland Southern (white) speech--whatever the nature of the
> >glides--is definitely /O/, not /a/!
> >
> >The situation is more complex and variable for "hog," "sausage," and
> >"laundry" (for example) in those dialects.
> >
> >--Charlie
> >_____________________________________________
> >
> >
> >---- Original message ----
> > >Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2006 14:24:18 -0400
> > >From: Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OHIO.EDU>
> > >Subject: Re: Dawgs
> > >To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > >
> > >Yes, that's BE, but it's not Appalachian/Inland Southern--for example,
> > rural Georgia.  I suggested [daUg] to capture the offglide Matt
> > mentioned, but it's not fully accurate either.  We have it in Athens
> > County/SE Ohio too, and it's definitely not [dOUg].
> > >
> > >Beverly
> > >
> > >At 11:30 PM 10/24/2006, you wrote:
> > >>I vote for Paul's 'the U-glide--like [dOUg]," which strikes me as a
> > decent representation of the BE pronunciation. Cf., e.g. the original
> > "you Ain't Nothin' But A Houn'-Dog," by "Big Mama" Willa Mae Thornton or
> > "No More Doggin'," by Rosco Gordon.
> > >>
> > >>-Wilson
> > >>
> >
> > >>>
> > >>>The schwa glide?  Or the U-glide--like [dOUg] ?  I know that's an old
> > Southern form.
> > >>>
> > >>>Paul Johnston
> >
> > >>>On Oct 24, 2006, at 4:53 PM, Matthew Gordon wrote:
> >
> > >>> >
> > >>> > I thought the "dawg" spelling was meant to represent not just the
> > open-o pronunciation but the more specifically southern diphthongal form
> > with the schwa glide.
> > >>> >
> > >>> >
> > >>> > On 10/24/06 3:34 PM, "Charles Doyle" <cdoyle at UGA.EDU> wrote:
> >
> >.. . . that spelling in a region where "dawg" represents what has been the
> >traditional pronunciation anyway--with that "open o" that dialects of many
> >regions are losing apace.
> >
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>
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--
Everybody says, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange
complaint to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
Whoever has lived long enough to find out what life is knows how deep
a debt of gratitude we owe to Adam, the first great benefactor of our
race. He brought death into the world.

--Sam Clemens

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