query on "boid"s and "terlet"s

[Paul Johnston]

I've been wondering about this for a long time.  No, as far as I know--and I
study a lot of British dialects--there is none that show this alternation.
In Belfast, you do sometimes get an /r/ for what is usually an /y/ (front
rounded vowel) so that "now" can come out sounding like "nar" and /i/ is
another possible variant.  But that's it in the British Isles.

I think I mentioned it before, because it's a teaser.  Hollandic Dutch (esp.
Broad Amsterdams) does sometimes turn an /r/ into an /i/ after some vowels,
so that "maar" (but) =  [ma:i], and "door" (through) = [do:i]--it wouldn't
surprise me if  "kleur" (color) can't be [klo/:i], which is at least close
to the alternation we're talking about.  It coexists with a very New York
like palatal approximant, too--a sound a lot of us who don't say "boid" have
in bird, and the sound in "terlet".  Nieuw Amsterdam, right?  Probably not.
>From what I can gather, the change is a 20th century one in Dutch.  And the
Dutch didn't settle the South, either.  And this Dutch change is restricted
to final position--exactly where you don't get the NY/NO change.  So we lose
all around.

It's been blamed on Yiddish too--and Yiddish is rich in /Vi/ diphthongs.
But Yiddish oy comes from a Medieval German open o, probably via fronting
and dissimilation, and there's no vowel like an English, non-rhotic /3:/, as
far as I know.  Nor would you tend to have /r/~/i/ alternations--you'd
either have an alveolar trill or a uvular one, neither of which is close to
/i/.

I wonder if there's any Irish dialects out there with palatal approximants
for /r/ instead of retroflexes; reflexes of Gaelic slender, instead of
broad, /r/ perhaps.  I don't know of any though, but I'm on shakier ground
with my Celtic, rather than Germanic dialectology.

Paul Johnston
----- Original Message -----
From: "Laurence Horn" <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Sunday, January 29, 2006 8:29 PM
Subject: Fwd: query on "boid"s and "terlet"s


> ---------------------- Information from the mail
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Fwd: query on "boid"s and "terlet"s
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
>
> This is from a student (not the same one who's looking at acquisition
> of AAVE) who is considering a project on American dialects for her
> senior essay.  This is another take on the question we batted around
> a month or so ago about Bill Labov and the NYC/New Orleans
> connection, but looking at the wider picture as well...
>
> ============
> I'm looking into the relationship between /r/ (the approximant as in
> American English) and "oy" or "uhy." I know that in some New Orleans
> and (old) New York varieties, SAE syllabic /r/s are replaced with
> some a rising diphthong, as in "woiking" ('working')  As I understand
> it there are also some communities (the same ones?) where the
> opposite process also occurs, as in "terlet" ('toilet').  Are there
> other dialects of English (American or otherwise) with similar
> alternations (in relation to SAE or another variety)?  I'm looking
> particularly for independent arisals, though spreading from New York
> or New Orleans would also be interesting.  Are there theories of how
> the New York and New Orleans pronunciations arose in the first place?
> (Do they stem from something similar in a British dialect?)
> ============
>
> Thanks for any pointers anyone can provide.
>
> Larry
>
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