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<P>Hi Beverly,</P>
<P> Thanks for writing back. My concentration is going to be in the Bronx, Queens, Long Island, New York City Area. I also want to look at Up State New York and see why there is such a great difference between the city and upstate. I have a lot of friends from NY (all over) and they can tell if someone is from their area or not. I interviewed one of my friends from upstate. She has cousins in Bridgeport CT which across the way from Long Island. She said her roommate is from Manhattan/Brooklyn area and I asked her how she can tell. She told me that she just knows. I asked her if she could find out the "how" for me because it would be an important piece to the puzzle. My area of focus is how the Italian and Yiddish cultures play an important part in these accents. I am reading Labov and his fiindings as well. I ordered a tape from Dr. Alan Stern Ph.D. who compares the differences between the Italian and Yiddish accent or dialect in New York City. If you have any more information to offer please let me know. Thanks Ray<BR></P></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>>From: Beverly Flanigan <FLANIGAN@OAK.CATS.OHIOU.EDU>
<DIV></DIV>>Reply-To: American Dialect Society <ADS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
<DIV></DIV>>To: ADS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
<DIV></DIV>>Subject: Re: of likely interest to NYers only
<DIV></DIV>>Date: Wed, 6 Mar 2002 11:30:39 -0500
<DIV></DIV>>
<DIV></DIV>>At 09:09 AM 3/6/02 -0500, you wrote:
<DIV></DIV>>>At 8:23 AM -0500 3/6/02, Michael Newman wrote:
<DIV></DIV>>>>>At 3:08 PM -0600 3/5/02, Matthew Gordon wrote:
<DIV></DIV>>>>>>Can you specify which NCS features you've noticed?
<DIV></DIV>>>>>>On a more general note, are NYers (nonlinguists) aware of the
<DIV></DIV>>>>>>NCS as a
<DIV></DIV>>>>>>stereotype of, say, Buffalo or Rochester?
<DIV></DIV>>>>>Well, more of Chicago, I think. But there's an awareness, at
<DIV></DIV>>>>>least
<DIV></DIV>>>>>on the part of many non-linguists. I've heard a couple of
<DIV></DIV>>>>>mock-Northern Cities pronunciations on sports highlight shows to
<DIV></DIV>>>>>denote "Chicago".
<DIV></DIV>>>>>
<DIV></DIV>>>>>larry
<DIV></DIV>>>>
<DIV></DIV>>>>I agree with Larry. When I mention Chicago, some of my students
<DIV></DIV>>>>will
<DIV></DIV>>>>front the vowel in the name. I also heard this in LA.
<DIV></DIV>>>>
<DIV></DIV>>>>As for our Great Lakes subway voice:
<DIV></DIV>>>>There is a fronted /a/ in 'stop' and lowered vowel in 'Wall,' as
<DIV></DIV>>>>well
<DIV></DIV>>>>as tensed /ae/s in places where NYers don't tense. There don't
<DIV></DIV>>>>seem
<DIV></DIV>>>>to be any of the later shifts.
<DIV></DIV>>>Maybe she's a New Yorker who's modeling herself after the renowned
<DIV></DIV>>>New York tough guy Lieut. Andy Sipowicz in NYPD Blue (= Dennis
<DIV></DIV>>>Franz,
<DIV></DIV>>>who must be from Chicago, or someplace like it, in real life)
<DIV></DIV>>
<DIV></DIV>>Labov uses Franz as a model of NCS in a great short interview he did
<DIV></DIV>>with
<DIV></DIV>>"20/20" (or some such show; I don't have the video handy), and he
<DIV></DIV>>notes
<DIV></DIV>>that Franz is actually from Chic/ae/go. He shows Franz saying "Wha'
<DIV></DIV>>happened?" three times, with a clearly tensed /ae/. (Alice asked
<DIV></DIV>>what my
<DIV></DIV>>students mean by "nasally," and this is it, as becomes clear when we
<DIV></DIV>>move
<DIV></DIV>>to vowel charts and talk about raising, tensing, etc.) The Labov
<DIV></DIV>>interview
<DIV></DIV>>is an excellent short clip to use in an undergrad class on dialects,
<DIV></DIV>>by the
<DIV></DIV>>way.
<DIV></DIV>>
<DIV></DIV>>_____________________________________________
<DIV></DIV>>Beverly Olson Flanigan Department of Linguistics
<DIV></DIV>>Ohio University Athens, OH 45701
<DIV></DIV>>Ph.: (740) 593-4568 Fax: (740) 593-2967
<DIV></DIV>>http://www.cats.ohiou.edu/linguistics/dept/flanigan.htm
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