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

[Laurence Horn]

At 11:36 AM -0500 2/25/09, Wilson Gray wrote:
>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

The *real* natives did front the stressed vowel more than suggested
by my implied [U] below, but not really lowered to a wedge [^]
either, I don't think.  Maybe a stressed barred-i?  Of course the
unrounding is a bit tricky to extract because of the rounded /w/ it
follows, but I think barred-i gets us pretty close:  neither as back
as in "wuss" nor as front as in "wistful".

LH

>---
>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: ?  ?  ?  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  Poster: ?  ?  ?  Amy West <medievalist at W-STS.COM>
>>  Subject: ?  ?  ? 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: ?  ? Mon, 23 Feb 2009 11:45:41 -0500
>>>From: ?  ? 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. ? "Babra" si, "Babwa" no.
>>>
>>>LH
>>
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>
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