"kin" for can

Tom Zurinskas truespel at HOTMAIL.COM
Fri May 9 10:15:17 UTC 2008


I agree, and these are tough calls for dctionary writers - to portray a word either as "citation" pronunciation or "real" pronunciation by most speakers.  In my version of VOA's beginner's dictionary I give both, with "can" as ~kan and ~ken.  Also "and" which is a very popular word, is also given as ~en, also "for" as ~fer.  There are many of these.  Dictiionaries should give these popular versions as well as "citation" versions.

Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL5+
See truespel.com - and the 4 truespel books plus "Occasional Poems" at authorhouse.com.

> Date: Tue, 6 May 2008 19:49:50 -0400
> From: laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
> Subject: Re: "kin" for can
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Laurence Horn
> Subject: Re: "kin" for can
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 6:13 PM -0400 5/6/08, Wilson Gray wrote:
>>Very probably merely one of a great many with that feature, especially
>>in the South and in the Southwest.
>>
>>-Wilson
>
> And in most of the U.S., including the Northeast, when it is (as is
> usually the case) unstressed, as in "We can do it" as opposed to
> "Yes, we can". Are you (W.W.) referring to contexts like the latter,
> which would then come out "Yes, we kin"?
>
> LH
>
>>
>>On Tue, May 6, 2008 at 5:23 PM, William Warren  wrote:
>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>>-----------------------
>>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>>> Poster: William Warren
>>> Subject: "kin" for can
>>>
>>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>> Perhaps my question should be directed to your newbies list since I am not
>>> a professional or student linguist:
>>> many people in Michigan ,my late father from SW Michigan and a late
>>> uncle- first husband of my maternal aunt in rural Perry ,and a
>>>naval recruiter
>>> in Lansing pronounce "can" -the verb- as "kin". Could anyone tell me any-
>>> thing about what dialect this would be ?
>>>
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>>
>>
>>
>>--
>>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
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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