Gone feeshin'

[Dennis R. Preston]

Herb,

Sounds right; so far vowel fronting (and unrounding) outside the South
looks to be pretty " young and yuppie."

>Dennis,
>
>That sounds like what's going on here, centralization and
>unrounding.  Do you find it across social classes, or is it
>restricted?  Muncie has a major dialect and socio-political divide
>at the White River, which flows through the town east to west.
>Put simplistically, South of the river is Appalachian and north is
>Northern Midlands.  I find the unrounding only north of the
>river.
>
>Herb
>
>>>> preston at PILOT.MSU.EDU 09/29/00 09:37AM >>>
>Herb,
>
>No, I mean the partial fronting (to a central position), usually
>accompanied by unrounding. I bet that's it (but I ain't there and
>you are).
>
>dInIs
>
>>Dennis,
>>
>>I'm not sure what that back-vowel fronting sounds like.  Is it
>>simply /u,U/ shifting to /i,I/?  If so, what I'm hearing is
>>different.  The resulting vowel is definitely not front,
>although
>>I don't think it's as far back as /u/.  It sounds like an
>>unrounded /U/, a little farther forward than /u/.  BTW, as a
>>central Indiana choir director I continually grapple with the
>CIn
>>diphthong /@U/ for Northern /u/.  I wonder if the high back
>>unrounded vowel I'm hearing is simply that diphthong before /S/
>>and the roundedness of /u/ shifts to the /S/, which is rounded
>>anyway.
>>
>>Herb
>>
>>>>> preston at PILOT.MSU.EDU 09/29/00 09:07AM >>>
>>Herb,
>>
>>Are you sure that this unrounding is not part of the very
>>general
>>back-vowel fronting going on among many younger speakers (as
>well
>>as the
>>Southern-based back vowel fronting, which may be "ccooperating"
>>in such
>>areas as yours)?
>>
>>Dennis
>>
>>>Tensing before /S/ is wide-spread in Central Indiana too,
>>although
>>>it seems to divide along social class lines.  It may simply be
>>>that immigrants from Appalachia, many of whom came during the
>>gas
>>>boom to work for glass companies like Ball Brothers, brought
>>that
>>>pronunciation and their communities have maintained it.  We
>>also
>>>have tensing of /U/ before /S/ in words like /pUS/ and /bUS at z,
>>>which is similarly stigmatized.  I've also heard "leash" as
>>/leiS/
>>>from tensing speakers.
>>>
>>>A complementary change taking place among middle and upper
>>middle
>>>class speakers over the past twenty years--that I've been
>>watching
>>>it, at least--is the unrounding of /U/ before /S/ so that the
>>>vowels in "bush", "push", "cushion", etc. become high back
>>>unrounded.  I can't think of an appropriate ASCII IPA symbol
>>for
>>>that just now, but I'm referring to the IPA inverted-m.
>>>
>>>Herb Stahlke
>>>
>>>Herb Stahlke
>>>
>>>>>> bergdahl at OHIO.EDU 09/29/00 07:40AM >>>
>>>In SE Ohio the tensing before -sh in fish, special (which
>>>produces the
>>>homophone special = spacial), and bush is widespread and
>>>stigmatized
>>>although former Gov Rhodes from jackson, Ohio didn't try to
>>limit
>>>it.  I
>>>don't know if the much more  prevalent tensing of /E/ before
>>-zh
>>>in
>>>measure, treasure &c. is related but that goes completely
>>>unnoticed and
>>>does not identify social class or region.
>>>
>>>____________________________________________________________________
>>>David Bergdahl          http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~bergdahl
>>>     tel:
>>>(740) 593-2783
>>>366 Ellis Hall     Ohio University  Athens, Ohio 45701-2979
>>>fax:
>>>(740) 593-2818
>>
>>
>>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
>
>
>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


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