the curious phonology of Wisconsin

[Dennis R. Preston]

larry,

Careful with that "totally" dropped (unless totally dropped for you
includes compensatory factors). I think you will hear a long /s/ in
those "Sconsins" (like you hear incredibly long /n/'s in Indianapolis
when it's pronounced /nnnaepl at s/.

dInIs

>At 9:52 AM -0500 11/22/04, Mark A. Mandel wrote:
>>Larry Horn sez:
>>
>>>>>
>>
>>At 6:13 PM -0500 11/21/04, Dennis R. Preston wrote:
>>>wI - skan - s at n
>>
>>or more accurately w at -
>>
>>         [...]
>>
>>I've always regarded that as a kind of familiarity-breeds-least-effort
>>effect, not unanalogous to "loovull" below.
>>
>><<<
>>
>>"Least effort" is notoriously (?) subjective. For me, syllable-initial /sC/
>>takes MORE effort, not less, than coda /-s/ followed by onset /C-/.
>
>I admit I don't know enough to be able to empirically argue the point, but...
>
>>And if
>>/sC-/ is more efficient to produce, why hasn't it spread across the whole
>>lexicon?
>
>...it does tend to occur hand-in-hand with loss of transparency, as
>in the "mi-stake" vs. "mis-took" examples we were just discussing, or
>e.g. "di-sturb", "di-stort", "di-stinct" vs. "dis-taste",
>"dis-temper".  There's even less effort involved after the
>resyllabification if you then drop the now totally unstressed first
>syllable, whence "Sconsin" for many native Badger Staters.  (It's
>even a shibboleth, as in Kenny Mayne's pronunciation on ESPN's
>SportsCenter.)
>
>L


--
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