against

[Dale Coye]

I noted yesterday that Paul Bremer, the administrator in Iraq, pronounced
"against" with the vowel of "gain".   The only other person I know who does this
is from Toronto originally.   Does anyone know where Bremer learned this?  is
it still a regionalism in the US? or is it a class marker in some areas?  I
would have thought it was limited to Canada in North America.  DARE does
indicate that it is used but doesn't say where, though it does tell us that this
vowel in "again" is found in Louisiana at the time of the field work.

Dale Coye
The College of NJ