LL-L: "Language varieties" 27.JUN.2000 (02) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 27.JUN.2000 (02) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: john feather [johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk]
Subject: Language varieties

Watching the recent British Telecom "teenage split" TV commercial I noticed

that the girl (otherwise speaking standard English) pronounced "friend" and

"yet" almost as "frand" and "yat". I caught something similar in an
American
TV film the other day. Is this a new sound-shift?

There was a similar shift in England round about the 1930s. At that time
(as
you can still hear in old films) posh people still said "ket" for "cat" but

it was dying out. I don't know how far back "ket" (etc) went, and how
widespread this usage was. Does anyone else know anything about this?

John Feather johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk

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From: R. F. Hahn [sassisch at yahoo.com]
Subject: Language varieties

John wrote (above)

> Watching the recent British Telecom "teenage split" TV commercial I
noticed
> that the girl (otherwise speaking standard English) pronounced "friend"
and
> "yet" almost as "frand" and "yat". I caught something similar in an
American
> TV film the other day. Is this a new sound-shift?

So you noticed!  Yæs, John. Thaht's, like, ah newish sordev theng.  I've
been "studying" ... well, watching it.  I think it started in the
mid-to-late 1980s and is in full swing now, probably being standard among
people 30 and under, at least in the Northern States.  I think it's begun
to spill over into Canada, because I heard a few young people in Vancouver
talk like that during my last few visits.  It seems to be more prevalent or
at least noticeable among female speakers.  What gets me is that it tends
to be accompanied by a special sort of voice production.  I call it "the
creaky voice" for lack of a better descripton.

As far as I can tell, it's a case of general lowering and in part backing
of non-rounded vowels, at least of the mid-level vowels ([E] > [æ], [æ] >
[a]), thus _friend_ [frænd], _yet_ [jæt], _let_ [læt], _bad_ [ba.d], _can_
[ka.n], _fat_ [fat].  (The result of [æ] > [a] is similar to what you find
in numerous dialects of England.)

I realized that I'm seriously getting up there in age when the other day my
doctor's temporary replacement talked like that, a female physician with a
couple of years of practice behind her.  Like so many, she also liked to
use the phrase "Good job!" where I would have said "Good!" or "Great!"
("Any pain here?" -- "No." -- "Good job!")

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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