the curious phonology of Wisconsin

[Dennis R. Preston]

Good parsing arnold, but there does appear to be one phonological
element which Wisconsonites have which is not shared with even their
close Sotan and (some) Michigander talkalikes. The syllable division
of the state name is

wI - skan - s at n

not wIs - con - s at n

as the rest of us have it.

It appears to be lexical rather than general (since they do not do
funny things with the syllable division for such words as
'miscalculate').

Ah mimber whin Ah first wint up there frum Loovull to git me mah PhD
how odd it sounded. I couldn't even figger out what they was doin fer
a long time.

Cheeseheads; funny talkers.

dInIs







>Randy Quaid, interviewed by Lillian Ross (in The New Yorker of
>11/22/04, p. 39) about his role in Sam Shepard's new play, "The God of
>Hell":
>-----
>Quaid, who lives in Beverly Hills with his wife, Evi, explained that he
>had to develop a Wisconsin accent for his role as a dairy farmer.  "I
>had to make my 'r's more pronounced," he said.  "Wisconsinites talk
>from the front of their mouths, because they don't want to breathe in
>the cold."
>------
>
>arnold, guessing that the intended parsing was
>   [breathe in]  [the cold], not
>   [breathe]  [in [the cold]]


--
Dennis R. Preston
University Distinguished Professor of Linguistics
Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic, Asian, and African Languages
A-740 Wells Hall
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824
Phone: (517) 432-3099
Fax: (517) 432-2736
preston at msu.edu
--
Dennis R. Preston
University Distinguished Professor of Linguistics
Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic, Asian, and African Languages
A-740 Wells Hall
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824
Phone: (517) 432-3099
Fax: (517) 432-2736
preston at msu.edu