LL-L: "Language varieties" LOWLANDS-L, 15.MAR.2000 (02) [E]

Wed Mar 15 19:00:05 UTC 2000

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From: "Ian James Parsley" <parsley at highbury.fsnet.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L: "Language varieties" LOWLANDS-L, 14.MAR.2000 (07) [E]

John,

... and I'd intended to write something along your lines in the third
paragraph of mine you quote!! "Confusion" was probably the wrong word -
I
meant a merging due to phonetic similarity along the lines you suggest.

Best,

-------------------------------
Ian James Parsley
http://www.gcty.com/parsleyij
"JOY - Jesus, Others, You"

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From: john feather [johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk]
Subject: Language varieties

I have to say that I hear something very close to "aboot" from Canadians.
How about the dreadful Madeleine in  TV's curious multilingual show "La
Femme Nikita"?

When I lived in Seattle (by then I'd been in the States for 18 months) a
pharmacist asked me if we had a certain product "up there", which puzzled me
briefly.

A curious pronunciation which I heard in Seattle from two different
Westerners was "traysure" for "treasure". Is this a true regional variant,
and what area does it cover?

Jane Leeves ("Daphne Moon") is from Guildford in Surrey. My sister lives in
Florida and has a friend from Manchester there. She says the locals find the
accent incomprehensible.

To go back to the question of Irish accents, it seems to me that most
Americans take "Irish" to mean Boston or New York Irish rather than any
accent actually used in the Emerald Isle. Is that right?

John Feather johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk

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From: john feather [johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk]
Subject: Language varieties

>>From 1946 to 1958 the Norfolk "humourist and philosopher" Sydney Grapes
wrote a series of letters to the Eastern Daily Press newspaper in the
character of the Boy John, a farm labourer. The following, about Valentine's
Day, was published in 1951. It includes  a couple of local customs which I
was brought up with - tea without the light on and anonymous gifts left on
the doorstep. Are they known elsewhere?

"Well, tha's orl over, sugar beeten I mean, the larst load went away a
Tharsday. Bor, we never warked in so much mud an sluss afore in orl our
lives. Oh, did yow ha' yar tea by daylite the furst Sunday arter Walenten?
We allus [always] du in the country. Granfar, he got a Walenten card, that
cum by the furst post, that was orl "I luv yow. Yow are my sweethart an my
Walenten," wi' a lot o' kisses an harts on it. He wornt werry plearsed; he
thort by the wryten that oul Mrs. W--- hed sent that. As I ha' told yow
afore, she sorter hang arter him. He say, "Lot o oul squit; hull it on the
fire." Aunt Agatha say "No," an she stood it on our mantelpiece.

"Oh! Mrs. W--- she called in a tha' forenoon: she hardly got indoors afore
she sed, "Oh, I see yow ha' hed a Walenten card, Granfar." (We new then
she'd sent it.) He say, "Yis, sum fule must a sent it. Pity they hearnt got
northen better to du." Acors, we orl got Walentens at nite. They statted a
lumpen on our door about harf arter seven. Furst cum an ounce o' baccer for
Granfar, then two mittens for me (I'd seen my Aunt Agatha a nitten them.)
Arter that there cum a tin o' pork for Aunt Agatha (we sent that). Acors,
the larst lot wot cum wus the brume a fallen in; we new that wus the finish.
... The funny thing wus, we'd gan Jimmur our Walentens to send, an Aunt
Agatha hed gan him ars to send. We found that out learter on."

Another letter contains a note about something we discussed last summer:
"Aunt Agatha's a coverin up the lookin glasses an a puttin the nives away
'cos there's a thunderstorm a cumin."

The final salutation in the letters is normally a variant of "Fare yow/yer
well together".

Grapes didn't use a consistent orthography and some of his spellings (eg
"hart") don't convey a particular pronunciation. The intruded "r's" are not
to be pronounced. In some cases he doesn't push the dialect as far as it
will go. For example, my grandmother might have said: "I'd seen my Aunt
Agatha a'nitten ahn 'em."

Some interesting words in this and other letters are:
bor: neighbour, but usually a familiar form of address
dicker/dickey: donkey
dussent: dare not
gays: pictures in a newspaper or magazine
mat: helter-skelter (a fairground "ride")
mob: to be angry, annoyed (with someone, about something)
a rummin/rummen: very
mob a rummin: to be very angry
nexter: next
a nights: at night
tissic: sore throat
troshall: threshold
to year/ter year: this year

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:

> A curious pronunciation which I heard in Seattle from two different
> Westerners was "traysure" for "treasure". Is this a true regional variant,
> and what area does it cover?

Yes, ['trEIZ=r] (vs ['trEZ=r]) for 'treasure' is not uncommon in these parts,
but I don't know if it is typical for the Pacific Northwest.  Mind you, it is
not *['plEIZ=r] but ['plEZ=r] for 'pleasure'!  Of course, 'leisure' is
pronounced as ['li:Z=r] (rather than as ['lEZ=r]) in pretty much all American
dialects.  Reluctantly, I have to pronounce it as ['li:Z@`] in most cases
because few people around here understand non-American ['lEZ@`].

I'm not sure if these pronunciations can be pinned down to certain local
dialects or sociolects -- perhaps only back in the British Isles.  I guess the
same applies to variation between [ru:f] and [rUf] for 'roof'.  Both seem to
occur within the same population.

Regards,

Reinhard/Ron

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