ADS-L Digest - 22 Feb 2009 to 23 Feb 2009 (#2009-55)

[Wilson Gray]

FWIW, a friend of mine, a native of Worcester, pronounces the name
something like "Wistuh." I heard the same or, at least, a very similar
pronunciation, used here in Boston by a guy who said that he had been
to - not "lived in" - "Wistuh." I'd expect a lower vowel than what is
probably an unrounded /u/. Naturally, another possibility is that my
hearing simply isn't what it used to be.

-Wilson
–––
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.
-----
-Mark Twain



On Wed, Feb 25, 2009 at 9:22 AM, Amy West <medievalist at w-sts.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Â  Â  Â  Amy West <medievalist at W-STS.COM>
> Subject: Â  Â  Â Re: ADS-L Digest - 22 Feb 2009 to 23 Feb 2009 (#2009-55)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> OK, now I'm understanding what Paul Johnston described as the lip
> /r/. (I don't have a good phonological background).
>
> I'm here in Worcester, though not a native. There is only one kid in
> my son's cohort who speaks like that, and it sounds funny to the rest
> of the cohort.
>
> Woo State has a Communications Sciences and Disorders department with
> a clinic. If people are interested in investigating this as an aspect
> of a standard or nonstandard Worcester accent, perhaps we can enlist
> their aid in getting some hard data. Not just from the clinic, which
> would be biased, but having students do surveys, etc.
>
> Right now, my impression is that if it is not classified as a "speech
> impediment/defect" it is a nonstandard variant of the local
> accent/pronunciation.
>
> ---Amy West
> residing in Worcester almost 4 years
> working here almost 8 years
>
>
>>Date: Â  Â Mon, 23 Feb 2009 11:45:41 -0500
>>From: Â  Â Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>>Subject: Re: ~ (UNCLASSIFIED)
>>
>>At 9:58 AM -0600 2/23/09, Barbara Need wrote:
>>>I am not a native of Massachusetts, but i lived north of Boston for
>>>nine years from 9.5. I never heard anyone up in Essex county who
>>>sounded like Barbara Walters--and no one ever pronounced my first name
>>>the way she is stereotyped as saying hers. (I remember people in my
>>>neck of the woods making fun of her!)
>>>
>>>Barbara
>>
>>
>>I just checked with my daughter, who recently endured...er, spent
>>four years as an undergraduate in Worcester (a.k.a. Wuhsta), and she
>>doesn't recall anyone speaking quite like BW, despite the rampant
>>non-rhoticity. Â "Babra" si, "Babwa" no.
>>
>>LH
>
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