low back merger--austentacious

[Wilson Gray]

Uh, is there some difference in pronunciation between "ostentatious"
and "austentatious" for some speakers who assume that their manner of
speech represents the norm?? I did not know that. What is the relevant
distinction?

-Wilson

On Fri, Mar 12, 2010 at 1:31 PM, Leslie Decker <leslie at familydecker.org> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Leslie Decker <leslie at FAMILYDECKER.ORG>
> Subject:      Re: low back merger--austentacious
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I live in Austin, TX, and a normal play on words here is to call
> something Austintatious. Of course, the local dialect here has the
> low-back merger.
>
> Leslie Decker
>
> On Friday, March 12, 2010, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
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>> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster: Â  Â  Â  "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
>> Subject: Â  Â  Â Re: low back merger--austentacious
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> At 3/12/2010 11:11 AM, Herb Stahlke wrote:
>>>CNN had a story this morning, which I haven't been able to find on
>>>their site, on the question of whether spellcheck is making kids into
>>>worse spellers. Â One of the misspellings they showed was
>>>"austentatious." Â I was in a noise room when I saw the story, so I
>>>didn't see the location. Â The teenage boy behind the misspelling at
>>>least had a perceptual contrast, if not also a productive one.
>>
>> Perhaps he's merely into the (long) 18th century -- its email list is
>> Austentatious.
>>
>> Joel
>>
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--
-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

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