pre-velar /ae/ raising (was: slang/slant)

[FRITZ JUENGLING]

I don't know if this helps, but I noticed several features that struck
me when I lived in the Cities.
First, 'bag' sounded like 'beg' when a MNsotan said it.  The kids
always pledged allegiance to the 'flague.'
More interestingly was the pronunciation of my wife's name (and similar
words): Holly.  She always complained that MNsotans called her 'Hally.'
Not exactly accurate, but pretty close.  The /a/ was very front, almost
/ae/.  Of course, it was also VERY nasal.  Must have something to do
with the long cold MN winters :)  This feature seemed to span most age
groups.
Fritz J

>>> gordonmj at MISSOURI.EDU 11/2/2006 11:01 AM >>>
Joe:
1. Welcome back to ADS-L. In case you were wondering, not everyone is
totally on board with the idea that all dialect field work can be done
at
m-w.com.

2. There are lots of interesting points in your post. I just wanted to
question your suggestion that the Northern Cities Shift is not found
in
Minnesota. I remember hearing it some ten years ago when I passed
through
"the cities." More importantly, Labov et al.'s Atlas of North American
English documents several NCS features in MN and even into North
Dakota.

-Matt Gordon


On 11/1/06 1:30 PM, "Joseph Salmons" <jsalmons at WISC.EDU> wrote:

> Greetings. I've just rejoined ADS-list after being off it for a few
> years, partly prompted by hearing about the interesting recent
slang/
> slant discussion. This 'pre-velar raising' is a topic a few of us
> here in Wisconsin are starting to work on, especially Tom Purnell.
I
> hope this message doesn't repeat earlier discussion (or steal Tom's
> thunder), but here's basically how things are looking to us right
now:
>
>...
> Matt Gordon raises a number of really good questions about this
> process which we have just started to look at data on: Is it related
> to NCS? From what we've seen so far, the answer is maybe. Note that
> the NCS isn't found as far west as Minnesota, or even western
> Wisconsin, where pre-velar raising is widespread. That suggests that
> it's a different deal.

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org