Learn to speak Wisconsin

[Paul Johnston]

Just a question for Northern Cities  Vowel Shift devotees and others
from the Great Lakes Area:  Wesconsin (and if you're a native, the
second syllable begins with the /s/) seems to have the same lowered
vowel you get in melk, pellow, Ellinoy for milk, pillow, Illinois.
Does anybody know what the conditioning factor is for that lowering?
It certainly isn't across the board.  My guess is you either have (1)
a preceding labial, (2) a following /l/ or (3) both.  And I'm not
sure it goes through in all those cases either.  If so, though, it
resembles the backing rule you get in my Edinburgh data--the
difference being, where Midwesterners have [E], the Eastern Scots
have [^], but in the same environments.  I don't know whether there's
any connection  historically--probably not.

Paul Johnston
On Sep 7, 2007, at 10:10 PM, Beverly Flanigan 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: Learn to speak Wisconsin
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---------
>
> These pronunciations are no problem for us Minnesotans; we have an
> abundance of Native Indian place names ourselves (Ojibwe and Dakota
> Sioux).
>
> At 09:53 PM 9/7/2007, you wrote:
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Tom Zurinskas <truespel at HOTMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Learn to speak Wisconsin
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>> ----------
>>
>> The below from the Chicago Tribune
>>
>>
>> Learn to speak Wisconsin
>> Posted by Toni Salama at 8 a.m. CDT
>>
>> Some Wisconsin place names are downright intimidating. If they're not
>> out-and-out tongue-twisters, their spelling can stump even the most
>> lingually gifted among us.
>>
>> I guess you have to expect that in a state whose very name,
>> Wisconsin, is
>> the English spelling of a French version of an Indian name for the
>> river
>> that runs through the center of the state.
>>
>> To the rescue comes MissPronouncer.com, where a click on Wisconsin
>> place
>> names is rewarded with audio of the correct pronunciation.
>>
>> Among the trickiest problems solved:
>>
>> Ashwaubenon
>> Chequamegon
>> Kaukauna
>> Kinnickinnic
>> Menomonie
>> Mequon
>> Oconomowoc
>> Prairie du Chien
>> St. Nazianz
>> Trempealeau
>> Weyauwega
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL5+
>> See truespel.com - and the 4  truespel books plus "Occasional
>> Poems" at
>> authorhouse.com.
>>
>> _________________________________________________________________
>> More photos; more messages; more whatever. Windows Live Hotmail -
>> NOW with
>> 5GB storage.
>> http://imagine-windowslive.com/hotmail/?locale=en-
>> us&ocid=TXT_TAGHM_migration_HM_mini_5G_0907
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org