wush (was Re: "Sock It to Me")

[Dennis R. Preston]

First, these are not eye-dialect examples in the strict sense; they
are respellings which try to represent an actual pronunciation
difference (not such eye-dialect only stuff as "sez" and "wuz"

The vowel we are after here is perhaps closer to "push" than "lush,"
but it is a central vowel, at IPA barred i.

dInIs

>MW3 shows the variant pronunciation /wUS/ for "wish".
>
>In those 'eye-dialect' examples of "wush" is the pronunciation /wUS/
>(rhymes with "push") or is it /wVS/ (rhymes with "lush") or is it some
>mixture of these? Do we know for sure? Is /wU/ an expected variant of /wV/,
>or vice-versa, or not?
>
>"Wush" is one conventional Scots spelling of "wiss" (= "wish"). SND on-line
>gives several examples from 19th and 20th century Scots. My little "Concise
>Scots Dictionary" seems to indicate a pronunciation /wVS/ (along with
>/wIs/, /wIS/, /wVs/).
>
>-- Doug Wilson


--
Dennis R. Preston
University Distinguished Professor
Department of English
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Michigan State University
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Office: (517) 432-3791
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