ah/ awe

[Paul Johnston]

But Tom, we do have dialects when we write.  When I have been
travelling to visit those lads and lassies who went to Uni with me in
Edinburgh, and go into some pub in the centre of town, I frequently
find myself surrounded by Labour voters and football supporters in
their full colours of maroon and/or green, over the moon after their
side has just blootered their Glasgow rivals three-nil, proceeding to
get royally pissed as newts, asking for a quick carry-out as they
stagger home to their beds.  I'm sure you could understand me right
fine--and I didn't use a single word you wouldn't find in some prose
piece in a newspaper, never mind the collected works of Ian Rankin or
Irvine Welsh.  Even the spelling is general Standard there--in fact,
I had to learn their system to get my Ph. D. thesis finished, and now
I can't remember whether there is one or two l's in travelled,
travelling and the like, though I do know that center, labor, etc. is
mine.  I'm sure my colleagues will have other examples.

Paul Johnston
On Oct 1, 2006, at 10:44 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: ah/ awe
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---------
>
>> From: sagehen <sagehen at WESTELCOM.COM>
>
>> Tom, would you wipe out all dialectal differences in pursuit of this
>> pronounce-as-spelled campaign?  How would you deal, e.g., with the
>> diphthongal i with which most northerners pronounce /light, sight,
>> might/,
>> &c?
>
> I'm not familiar with that dipthong.  In m-w.com those words above
> do not
> have vowels that are two-phthongs to me.
>
> As an ideal, dialectical differences are not good.  The purpose of
> speech is
> to communicate.  Any alterations that lessen this is not a good
> thing.   We
> don't have dialects when we write, why should we in this day and
> age have
> them when we talk.
>
> Tom Z
>
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