entertaining dialect

[Dennis R. Preston]

Herb,

I reckon the NCCS did not bite you, or if it did, just barely.

Several recent studies (Niedzielski, Rice and Dailey-O'Cain, Alberta) have
looked at so-called Canadian raising in SE Michigan (both in production and
perception) with very interesting results.

dInIs



>Dennis,
>
>Actually, I'm a fine one to talk.  I'm from SE Michigan, the little town
>of Waltz, 7 m W of Flat Rock on the Wayne/Monroe county line, and I lived
>there in the forties and fifties.  My students here in Muncie, IN, find my
>speech funny, and when I explain some of the reasons to them they find it
>even moreso, except my phonetics students, who find it a burden.  My
>native area, and I don't know how large that is or if it's still true
>because I don't get back there much, phonemicizes Canadian Raising.  I
>contrast kind-R "sort" with kind-L "well-disposed, round-R (prep) with
>round-L (adj), hide-R (verb) with hide-L (noun), etc., and, in good MI
>fashion, my raised diphthongs start on a schwa and my lowered start on a
>tent.  Gives them fits when they have to transcribe narrowly.
>
>I should mention that I live there before Northern Cities hit the area,
>and I went to a prep school in Milwaukee from 55-61 (it included jr.
>college), so I escaped Northern Cities Vowel Shift completely.
>
>Herb
>
>>>> preston at PILOT.MSU.EDU 03/01/00 11:00AM >>>
>dInIs' talk in MI = funny (or worse)
>dInIs' talk in Louisville = not like you used to, kinda funny
>
>dInIs (who you damn guys got not only saying "guys" to refer to both sexes
>but even third-personing his own self)
>
>>Fess up, Dennis.  You just talk funny.
>>
>>Herb
>
>
>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