/wh/ - /w/

[Wilson Gray]

On Sep 28, 2004, at 5:10 PM, Marsha Alley wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Marsha Alley <MARSHAALLEY at MSN.COM>
> Subject:      Re: /wh/ - /w/
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>   Sender:       American Dialect Society =
> <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU<mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>>
>   Poster:       "Dennis R. Preston" =
> <preston at MSU.EDU<mailto:preston at MSU.EDU>>
>   Subject:      Re: /wh/ - /w/
>   =
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>> The poshness of /hw/-/w/ is odd to me too (since I had it nateral as
>> a kid), but I came to learn later that many thought of it as a swell
>> form (and have been teased mercilessly by my Milwaukee wife, who
>> also mocks my /a/nvelope, /ku/pon, and pa/ja/mas).
>
>
>
> Dennis, I grew up in Southern California but of solid Appalachian and =
> Missouri country stock.  My "accent" is like yours, and believe me,
> I'm =
> not a member of anything remotely elite or posh.  I spoke quite like a
> =
> mountain child until beginning school in 1953 - the Los Angeles school
> =
> system trained me out of it quickly.  It comes back just as quickly, =
> though, if I'm with someone from the deep south.  I do not, however,
> say =
> "aunt" as [ahnt] as southern African-Americans do

Quite so. Sometimes, Northeners who say "ant" are faked out by this,
since they expect that I would say "aint."

> , but rather [ant]. =20
>
> I now live in rural Oregon and find many people here sound a lot like
> my =
> old relatives but without the hard twang, but many of them say [ahnt].
>  =
> No idea why.
>
> I sometimes wonder if it's rurality more than regionality that =
> influences how we sound.

I feel the same way. I'm a former California Aggie (University of
California, Davis). When I was a student there, I was surprised by the
fact that farmers' kids from the California Central Valley don't sound
particularly different from farmers' kids in Missouri or Texas. They
all sound, in some sense that I won't try to define, "country."

-Wilson Gray

>   I'm just now beginning to study all of this =
> and am fascinated.
>
> Marsha Alley marshaalley at msn.com<mailto:marshaalley at msn.com>
> /a little red-faced over the sux conversation, but I'll get over it,
> LOL
>