Different dialects, same error

[Laurence Horn]

At 1:58 PM -0400 9/4/04, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:
>>As a New Yorker, I'm definitely in the group that
>>distinguishes -in- from -en-, unlike you and dInIs, and like your
>>friend, I was a bit puzzled about Windy as a name.  But that's
>>definitely what I heard, and unlike what happens when I'm listening
>>to those who neutralize, I really did hear it as Windy in the song
>>and not Wendy.
>
>I distinguish /In/ from /En/ but many didn't where I grew up and I wouldn't
>have any trouble understanding "pin" for "pen" etc. based on context. To
>make this "Windy" into "Wendy" however never occurred to me for an instant:
>I took the name in the song to be an odd nickname and I've never wondered
>about it at all. Why? I suppose that those persons who would pronounce
>"Wendy" the same as "windy" would (in my perhaps limited experience) have
>other characteristic pronunciations which I didn't hear in this song.

I agree with this diagnosis.

>
>I hear e.g. /wIndi h&z stOrmi ajz/.

that, if memory serves, flash at the sound of lies.

>If I heard something in the direction
>of /wIndi hEj at z stO(r)mi az/ (more southern, I suppose) maybe I'd take the
>first word as "Wendy". Or maybe I'm just imagining things.
>
>-- Doug Wilson