the curious phonology of Wisconsin

[Laurence Horn]

At 2:28 PM -0500 11/22/04, Dennis R. Preston wrote:
>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

Well, I didn't actually *say* the first syllable was totally dropped,
I said it was totally unstressed (whence the tendency to schwagenize
the vowel) and that it's dropped by many Badger Staters.  I think, it
retrospect, that while some do have the long /s/ there, many don't,
and for many of those who do lengthen the /s/ it's not as remarkably
lengthened as the /n/ of the tri-plus-syllabic rendering of
"Indianapolis".  (Which would make sense, since there's less
compensation involved.)

L

>
>>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