against

[Jesse Sheidlower]

On Fri, Jul 25, 2003 at 10:57:22AM -0400, Dale Coye wrote:
> 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.

Eric Hamp pronounces it this way.

Jesse Sheidlower