Off-gliding to G

[Paul Johnston]

i remember hearing a paper Jim Milroy gave at one of the
Sociolinguistic Symposia (using some Labov material) where he showed
that we all are more likely to use [-In] in the old -inde cases
(participles) than in the -ing cases (gerunds, verbal nouns).  Not
that people don't use either form throughout, but the frequency of -
in' for participles will be higher if there's any variation.  Works
for me, certainly.  I'm more likely to say "I'm buildin a shed", than
either "The buildin of that shed took all summer" or "That buildin
over there was built in 1983".  Participles are more frequent in
speech, too, though.

Paul Johnston
On Sep 25, 2009, at 4:00 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Off-gliding to G
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---------
>
> At 3:55 PM -0400 9/25/09, Paul Johnston wrote:
>> It was (according to Roger Lass) usual in true upper-class speech as
>> late as the early 20c.
>> Ii was the MIDDLE classes --in the British sense here--who were
>> especially conscious of "correctness".  The upper classes set  the
>> tone (and here, were apparently just being conservative, retaining
>> the reflex of ME -inde/-ende) and didn't have to worry about adopting
>> a spelling pronunciation as much.
>>
>> Paul Johnston
>
> Interesting.  I hadn't realized the -[IN] (or, for Tom Z's behalf,
> -[iN]) pronunciation was a spelling pronunciation and that -[In] is
> closer to what we all "should" be saying.  So it's not some of us
> "dropping one's g's" but the rest of us inventing them.  Makes
> diachronic sense.
>
> LH
>
>>
>>
>> On Sep 25, 2009, at 2:43 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>>
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>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>>> Subject:      Re: Off-gliding to G
>>> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> --
>>> ---------
>>>
>>> At 1:37 PM -0500 9/25/09, Barbara Need wrote:
>>>> Lynne,
>>>>
>>>> I wonder how much this might be a reaction to the "g-dropping" in
>>>> participles (huntin', fishing', etc.). I have assumed that this
>>>> was a
>>>> shibboleth in England based on its treatment in mysteries
>>>> (there's at
>>>> least one Agatha Christie in which it is a clue!).
>>>>
>>>> Barbara
>>>
>>> Dorothy Sayers's Lord Peter Wimsey affects this "g-dropping" in
>>> participles as an instance of reverse snobbery (as I understand it).
>>>
>>> LH
>>>
>>>>
>>>> Barbara Need
>>>> Chicago
>>>>
>>>> On 23 Sep 2009, at 6:37 AM, Lynne Murphy wrote:
>>>>
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>>>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>>> Poster:       Lynne Murphy <m.l.murphy at SUSSEX.AC.UK>
>>>>> Subject:      Re: Off-gliding to G
>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>> --
>>>>> -----------
>>>>>
>>>>> I probably do this from time to time, but my sister-in-law (native
>>>>> of South
>>>>> London) does it a LOT, though the rest of her family doesn't.  I
>>>>> associate
>>>>> it with a certain kind of over-enunciative talking that has a
>>>>> certain
>>>>> 'lilt' to it as well.  (Sorry, not a very good description.)
>>>>>
>>>>> Lynne
>>>>>
>>>>> --On 22 September 2009 12:27 -0700 Grant Barrett
>>>>> <gbarrett at WORLDNEWYORK.ORG> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> I received this query from a listener to the radio show and
>>>>>> wonder if
>>>>>> anyone has any thoughts about it. Is it something you've noticed
>>>>>> yourself as being more common? Can you recommend reading on this
>>>>>> particular habit?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I wondered if you were aware that, in your broadcasts, you
>>>>>>> tend to
>>>>>>> pronounce a hard G at the ends of words like "sing". I am
>>>>>>> running
>>>>>>> into this habitual off-gliding more and more with my acting
>>>>>>> students. When I point this out to them, they are shocked
>>>>>>> that you
>>>>>>> could say a word like "sing" without that hard G sound.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Grant Barrett
>>>>>> gbarrett at worldnewyork.org
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Dr M Lynne Murphy
>>>>> Senior Lecturer in Linguistics
>>>>> Arts B357
>>>>> University of Sussex
>>>>> Brighton BN1 9QN
>>>>>
>>>>> phone: +44-(0)1273-678844
>>>>> http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com
>>>>>
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