lawn-loan

[Beverly Flanigan]

I'm from Southern Minnesota, though 40 years away now (horrors!), and I'm
struck every time I go "home" by the increased centralizing in
"about."  Centralizing in "night" has been common since my childhood and
before (my parents never said [nait]), but my [@baUt] has now moved to
[@b^Ut], roughly, and in one great niece even to [@but].  She lives in west
central MN, near Alexandria, and from her area northward to the Canadian
border the [u] as in 'boot' is more and more evident.  It would be remarked
upon in my SW corner of MN, but it isn't north of her area.

On WH~W:  I wonder if people still think WH in 'which', 'when', etc. is
more "proper," even if they don't use it themselves, whereas the I/E merger
is considered "improper"?  I think my high school English teacher tried to
get us to say WHich, though of course none of us did.

At 01:29 PM 4/21/2006, you wrote:
>Dennis,
>But the raising of the NIGHT V1 (first element) is common, seemingly, in
>all areas of Michigan (if never invariable)--it isn't something viewed as
>"foreign" or "Yooper" like OUT-raising is (even though I've heard OUT
>raising from Thumb residents also, and among very old Northern LP'ers
>sporadically).  Interesting is that my students are beginning to perceive
>that their vowels in NIGHT and TIME aren't the same, whereas in 1989, when
>I started here, they were at the same values as now, but they wouldn't
>believe they weren't the same.  I wonder what perceptions of this are like
>in central WI or southern MN, where you can get the same asymmetrical raising.
>
>Paul Johnston
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Dennis R. Preston" <preston at MSU.EDU>
>Date: Friday, April 21, 2006 10:48 am
>Subject: Re: lawn-loan
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------
> > ------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       "Dennis R. Preston" <preston at MSU.EDU>
> > Subject:      Re: lawn-loan
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------
> > ------------
> >
> > Larry,
> >
> > I'd say BOAT versus BOOT are about equal in inaccuracy (since the
> > glide final position is probably at GOOD); it's the fact that the
> > diphthongal quality of the Canadian-raised goody is missed altogether.
> >
> > The related puzzler is that the Canadian raising of the NIGHT vowel
> > awakens no response at all, while the OUT vowel is a real howler.
> >
> > Sort of like my WH - W distinction, which causes no notice or comment
> > here in MI, but when I neutralize I/E before nasals, the locals yuck
> > it up.
> >
> > dInIs
> >
> > >At 8:47 AM -0400 4/21/06, Dennis R. Preston wrote:
> > >>Ron,
> > >>
> > >>Ah dint know you were doin folk perceptual dialect phonology. I
> > >>suspect you are right. I'm always amazed that local Michiganders
> > hear>>Ontario "about" (and imitate it) as "a boot")
> > >
> > >And not just Michiganders.  I've always wondered why--even if the
> > >misrepresentation is influenced by the need to come with a form that
> > >has a transparent orthographic form (cf. "boid" and "earl" for
> > >so-called Brooklynese), it wasn't "a boat" rather than "a boot" that
> > >folks came up with for Canadian--that's at least closer, isn't it?
> > >
> > >L
> > >
> > >------------------------------------------------------------
> > >The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
> >
> > --
> > Dennis R. Preston
> > University Distinguished Professor
> > Department of English
> > 15C Morrill Hall
> > Michigan State University
> > East Lansing, MI 48824
> > 517-353-4736
> > preston at msu.edu
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
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