~chooldrin

[Charles Doyle]

And the vowel you are hearing is probably a "barred I"--half way between the vowel in "chill" and the one in "wool."

That pronunciation of "children" has been regarded as "Southern," but it may be spreading.

--Charlie
_________________________________________

---- Original message ----
>Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2006 00:53:34 -0400
>From: Paul Johnston <paul.johnston at WMICH.EDU>
>Subject: Re: ~chooldrin
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
>Your old enemy, sound change again, in this case, assimilation to the slightly lip-rounded qual.  ity of the preceding /tS/ (<ch> and the velarity of the dark /l/ following the vowel in question.  This would tend to back, and/or round the vowel, simply because we don't pronounce sounds in isolation, but as part of a continuous string and (regrettably for you, but inevitably) our speech organs cause each sound to overlap into the preceding and subsequent sounds.
>
>Paul Johnston
>On Oct 17, 2006, at 10:00 PM, Tom Zurinskas wrote:
>> >>
>> I've noticed a change in pronunciaiton of "children".  I would assume it to be ~childrin (~ denotes truespel notation).  But I'm hearing everywhere ~chooldrin (where ~ool is as in ~wool).
>>
>> Not that I like it.  I prefer speech to be as close to tradspel (traditional spelling) as possible.  Wandering away from it violates the alphabetic principle.
>>
>> Tom Z

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