online accent quiz

[Paul Johnston]

Tom,
We could have used you in 1385, when those dirty kids (no doubt
corrupted by Lollardy, rampant anticlericalism and uncouth Northern
influence (those wlaffyng harryng and garryng grisbyters) had the
audacity to drop final -e, when it is written.  Now we can't tell
weak from strong adjectives.  How are those from Flanders, Hainault
and Cleves going to learn our language then??

God save King Richard,
Paul
On Dec 2, 2006, at 8:42 PM, Tom Zurinskas wrote:

> ---------------------- 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
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---------
>
>> From: "Dennis R. Preston" <preston at MSU.EDU>
>
>> Tom,.
>
>> Not quite; since aspect is the phonological componenet of dialect,
>> your monsieur from Indianapolis won't quite cut it.
>
> aspect?  You're saying you can't have a French accent in a midwestern
> dialect then?
>
>> Please refer to former conceted efforts to change language. The
>> caught-cot distinction will go, and our grandchildren will not be
>> linguistic dummies for the loss.
>
> The caught/cot distinction won't go because it shouldn't.  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.
>
> Are all efforts to change language conceted?
>
>> dInIs (who, as you notice, does very well with I-E conflation
>> beore nasals)
>
> conflation?  Another word for merging.  Of I-E.  What's this SAMPA
> for short
> i and short e?
>
> 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+
> See truespel.com and the 4 truespel books at authorhouse.com.
>
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