ah/ awe

[Beverly Flanigan]

Right--it's not here in my area, but I haven't checked out the
Steubenville/Wheeling/Morgantown area.  We could ask Kirk Hazen when we see
him at NWAV.

At 11:19 PM 10/2/2006, you wrote:
>Yeah but the interesting thing about Pittsburgh, as Doug noted, is the
>monophthongization of /aw/ which isn't spreading into either Ohio or West
>VA, right? The Atlas of North American English found it only in SW PA with
>any regularity.
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Beverly Flanigan
>Sent: Mon 10/2/2006 9:54 PM
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject:      Re: ah/ awe
>
>Same thing in southeastern Ohio:  The vowel in 'Don' and 'dawn' isn't quite
>as rounded as my Northern 'saw' and 'bought', but it's definitely not the
>vowel in Northern 'Don'--as it is in central Ohio and westward.  So there's
>a merger of ah/awe here too, but it's more raised and further back than in
>Columbus.
>
>At 12:49 AM 10/2/2006, you wrote:
> >And just south of Pittsburgh, in Northern West Virginia and Greene
> >County, PA, Don and Dawn come out with something like a Philadelphia
> >dawn.  My mother-in-law's (male) cousin, from Waynesburg, PA, is
> >"Dawnie" with quite a raised open o.
> >
> >Paul Johnaston
> >On Oct 1, 2006, at 7:28 PM, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:
> >
> >>---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >>-----------------------
> >>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >>Poster:       "Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET>
> >>Subject:      Re: ah/ awe
> >>----------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>---------
> >>
> >>Here is my perception of the situation in Pittsburgh.
> >>
> >>In (say) Chicago, in my experience, there are usually two distinct
> >>vowels
> >>in "Don" and "Dawn": say, "Don" /dan/ 'unrounded', "Dawn" /dOn/
> >>'rounded'.
> >>
> >>In stereotypical Pittsburgh pronunciation, to my ear, "Don" and
> >>"Dawn" are
> >>both /dOn/. Pittsburghers regard them as sounding the same. They
> >>both sound
> >>(to me) like Chicago "Dawn".
> >>
> >>This does not by any means imply that stereotypical Pittsburghers
> >>have any
> >>trouble saying /dan/ or distinguishing it from /dOn/. Pittsburghers
> >>say
> >>/dan/ (which sounds to me the same as Chicago "Don") all the time:
> >>but it's
> >>spelled "down" (this is a sort of local shibboleth, I guess).
> >>
> >>-- Doug Wilson
> >>
> >>
> >>--
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> >>
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