online accent quiz

[Scot LaFaive]

What you call mispronunciation is a large part of what makes a dialect a
dialect. If you say the speakers of certain dialects are mispronouncing
their words, then you are saying that their dialect is wrong. Personally, I
won't say that someone's natural language is wrong just because they
pronounce "pen" and "pin" the same. Someone might tell me that my dialect is
wrong too for extending the length of the "o" in Minnesota, but I don't
think it is. It's just different. I personally think we, as linguists,
should be just describing the way people speak instead of telling them they
are wrong and trying to prescribe.

Scot LaFaive


>From: Tom Zurinskas <truespel at HOTMAIL.COM>
>Reply-To: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject: Re: online accent quiz
>Date: Sun, 3 Dec 2006 19:52:19 +0000
>
>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Tom Zurinskas <truespel at HOTMAIL.COM>
>Subject:      Re: online accent quiz
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Why defend mispronunciations.  Sure folks in some areas say  pin for pen.
>So when they say "I've got a pin for you" you don't know what they mean.
>Is
>it pin or pen?
>
>My friend was working with a speach recognition program.  He said the
>stupid
>program recognized "bed" for "bad".  I said let me hear you say it.  Then I
>said "You are saying "bed" instead of "bad".
>
>If that's "knot" a "bed" homonym "eye" don't "no" "watt"t is.  :-)
>
>Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL4+
>See truespel.com and the 4 truespel books at authorhouse.com.
>
>
>
>
>
> >From: Michael H Covarrubias <mcovarru at PURDUE.EDU>
> >Reply-To: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> >Subject: Re: online accent quiz
> >Date: Sun, 3 Dec 2006 01:37:51 -0500
> >
> >---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >-----------------------
> >Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >Poster:       Michael H Covarrubias <mcovarru at PURDUE.EDU>
> >Subject:      Re: online accent quiz
> >-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> >Quoting Tom Zurinskas <truespel at HOTMAIL.COM>:
> >
> > > The caught/cot distinction
> > > won't go because it shouldn't.
> >
> >This must mean that English lost the [a:]/[a] distinction because it
>should
> >have.  Was there also a requirement that led to the vowel shift?
> >
> > > You may not care, but there are those
> > > that do.  Awe-droppers do the language
> > > a disservice, create unnecessary homonyms,
> > > thereby lessening intelligibility and ease
> > > of learning English.
> > > [...]
> >
> >I doubt I could make a reasonable distinction between necessary and
> >unnecessary
> >homonyms.
> >
> > > I have no clue what dInIs is.
> > > SAMPA for Dennis?  Both vowels are
> > > short i? This does not happen in USA.
> > > You must be a Brit?
> > > Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL4+
> >
> >Despite your apparent view of the supremacy of your dialect/idiolect the
> >[I]
> >does indeed occur as a surface form for many speakers of American
>English.
> >Have you never heard someone pronounce "pen" [pIn]?  It's not a secret.
> >It's
> >not rare.  It's not wrong it's not evil and it won't ruin the language.
> >
> >Michael Covarrubias
> >
> >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> >
> >    English Language & Linguistics
> >    Purdue University
> >    mcovarru at purdue.edu
> >
> >    web.ics.purdue.edu/~mcovarru
> >   <http://wishydig.blogspot.com>
> >
> >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> >
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> >The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
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