"Connecticut accent" in the Times

[Wilson Gray]

On Sep 9, 2004, at 4:10 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "Connecticut accent" in the Times
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>
> At 3:18 PM -0400 9/9/04, Wilson Gray wrote:
>> On Sep 9, 2004, at 2:14 PM, Charles Jones wrote:
>>
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>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> Poster:       Charles Jones <cejone01 at MOREHEADSTATE.EDU>
>>> Subject:      Re: "Connecticut accent" in the Times
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>>> --
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>>>
>>> Laurence Horn wrote:
>>>
>>> Bostonians and New Yorkers also pronounce their ''o's'' and ''a's''
>>> differently from each other and from Connecticut.
>>>
>>>   Ms. MacKenzie said ''forest'' and ''orange'' are pronounced
>>> FORE-ist
>>> and OR-inge in Connecticut, but as FAR-ist and ARE-inge in New York.
>>>
>>> I knew a gentleman from Louisiana that pronounced his o's and a's
>>> very
>>> much like
>>> that of these described in NY.  It seems unlikely to me that these
>>> pronunciations would be similar at all.
>>>
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>>
>> FAR-ist and Are-inge in New YARk?! That's sounds like my St. Louis
>> accent!
>>
> I grew up with the unrounded script-a in "FAR-ist" and "AHR-inge",
> "MAHR-uhl" and "CAHR-uhduhr" in NYC, and it was only when I went
> upstate to the U. of Rochester that they were driven out of me, and I
> adopted the open-o (although I think this actually has been a
> relatively lively variable for me ever since).   But nobody in NY
> would say "New Yark"--the stereotype is "Noo Yawk" and while I was
> rhotic, "Noo York" with an open-o would come pretty close.  This
> suggests that the earlier words should really be rendered as
> "FAH-rist" rather than "FAR-ist", since what's crucial is the open
> syllable in such cases.   The vowels of "core" and "four" were quite
> distinct from those of "coral" and "forest".  This is lexical,
> though, since "oral" had an open-o and thus didn't rhyme with "coral"
> and "moral".
>
> L
>

This probably won't shock you, but I distinguish between "aural" and
"oral" primarily by context. Their joint use is rare enough in actual
speech that I've never been motivated to learn to distinguish them in
any other way.

BTW, didn't everyone, or every college graduate, at least, once upon a
time, pronounce, e.g. "coral" and "Volvo" as [kOr at l] and [vOlvo]?
Nowadays, I seem to hear only [kor at l] and [volvo]. People no longer
identify "Carl Gables" as the loc of the U of Miami or identify the
"volv" of Volvo with the "volv" of "revolver."

-Wilson Gray