/l/ vocalization

[Wilson Gray]

Actually, I agree with you in every detail, dInIs. Its just that,
whenever I can't call to mind the symbol that I really want or I just
plain don't know which one to use, I figure, WTF, I'll just use @.

I know what you mean about finding out unnoticed features of your own
pronunciation. Until I heard myself saying "tango" on tape, I would
have bet money that the mere fact of my being black meant that I had
no twang, that sound being peculiar to the speech of "peckerwoods." I
was also under the impression that Northernization in Saint Louis had
reduced the Southern Mayrih/merrih/marrih/Murrih distintion to
merry/marry/Murray. However, all that I have done is to shorten
Down-Home [mej I rI] to [me:ri] (or, perhaps. to [mejri]). Oh, well.
As my former roommate used to say, "Man, I don' use no glo?al stop!"

-Wilson

On 3/20/08, Dennis Preston <preston at msu.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>  Poster:       Dennis Preston <preston at MSU.EDU>
>  Subject:      Re: /l/ vocalization
>  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>  Wilson,
>
>  I've always taken these to be hypercorrections by those of us who
>  vocalilze our postvocallic /l/s. They were very common pronunciations
>  in my parts of the South Midlands (Southern IL & IN, and Northern and
>  Western KY among older working class speakers, white and black.
>  I don't want to be picky (although my wife says I am enormously so
>  when it comes to phonetic detail), but I think one would have to note
>  a rounding of the schwas you show as the centering glide in such
>  examples as "film" and "elm" for many speakers, but perhaps not all.
>  I think I say something more like [EUm], and I bet that rounding (or
>  its loss) is connected to low-level social differences in many speech
>  communities.
>
>  Loss of rounding does not imply deletion however. Notice how the
>  [hE at p] or [hEUp] versus [hEp] pronunciations are strongly socially
>  stratified in most South Midland and Southern areas where
>  vocalization is the norm even among the highest status speakers. It
>  makes me chuckle to remember that I thought [hEp] speakers were
>  hillbillies and shitkickers when I left Louisville for the snotty
>  heights of Madison WI to do my PhD in the early 60's. Turned out I
>  was one too!
>
>  dInIs
>
>  >---------------------- Information from the mail header
>  >-----------------------
>  >Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>  >Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>  >Subject:      Re: Baby Mama Spawns a Movie
>  >-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>  >
>  >The only person that I've ever met who used things like "fillim" and
>  >"ellem" in his normal speech was my late stepfather, a native of Saint
>  >Louis of mixed African-American and European-American Arkansan
>  >ancestry.
>  >
>  >The expected BE pronunciations are "fi'm" [fI at m] and "e'm" [E at m],
>  >though the blues phrase, "deep Ellum," implies that such was not
>  >always the case.
>  >
>  >-Wilson
>  >
>  >On 3/19/08, Doug Harris <cats22 at frontiernet.net> wrote:
>  >>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>  >>-----------------------
>  >>   Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>  >>   Poster:       Doug Harris <cats22 at FRONTIERNET.NET>
>  >>   Subject:      Baby Mama Spawns a Movie
>  >>
>  >>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>  >>
>  >>   The phrase, not the baby mama per se.
>  >>   'Baby Mama' is the title of an upcoming
>  >>   filim starring Tiny Fey, according to
>  >>   Parade magazine. The premise: A single
>  >>   woman, desperate to conceive, engages a
>  >>   surrogate 'baby mama'.
>  >>   Somewhat ironically, both the aspiring
>  >>   mom and the surrogate are Caucasian.
>  >>   dh
>  >>
>  >>   ps: is the 'filim' pronunciation peculiar
>  >>   to a particular geography?
>  >>
>  >>   ------------------------------------------------------------
>  >>   The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>  >>
>  >
>  >
>  >--
>  >All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
>  >come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>  >-----
>  >                                               -Sam'l Clemens
>  >
>  >------------------------------------------------------------
>  >The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>
>  --
>  Dennis R. Preston
>  University Distinguished Professor
>  Department of English
>  Morrill Hall 15-C
>  Michigan State University
>  East Lansing, MI 48864 USA
>
>  ------------------------------------------------------------
>  The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
                                              -Sam'l Clemens

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