Austracism

[Dennis R. Preston]

Aaaron is right on. Of course genrational and regional are not in
opposition (unless the claim is that hw-w is "age-graded," which I think is
certainly not the case, but I'd be happy to learn of such a claim).

dInIs

>On Thu, 10 Feb 2000, Anne Lambert wrote:
>
>}Speaking of hw-w distinguishers, I have been told that this is a
>}generational difference.  I always thought that it was a regional
>}difference; most people I know from the Northeast don't use it, but I,
>}from Chicago, do.  I think maybe this is a feature that started in the
>}Northeast and may have migrated west over the generations.  Any comments?
>
>Isn't a lot (most?) language change generational?  Herold (1990) (as cited
>in Labov 1994: 323) shows how the caught-cot merger differs between a
>father and son, so that distinction is generational, although it started
>off as regional. Fifty years from now, it might be like hw-w, in that it's
>generational, and only in a defined region.
>
>--Aaron
>
>________________________________________________________________________
>Aaron E. Drews                               The University of Edinburgh
>aaron at ling.ed.ac.uk                  Departments of English Language and
>http://www.ling.ed.ac.uk/~aaron       Theoretical & Applied  Linguistics
>
>"MERE ACCUMULATION OF OBSERVATIONAL EVIDENCE IS NOT PROOF"
>        --Death


Dennis R. Preston
Department of Linguistics and Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
preston at pilot.msu.edu
Office: (517)353-0740
Fax: (517)432-2736