~chooldrin

[Jonathan Lighter]

"Southern"?  I've been saying "chooldrin" all my life and will continue to do so long after I am dead.

  As far as I can remember, my  grandparents pronounced it the same way.  I can even remember commenting on the crazy spelling in grade school, only to be told "that's just the way it's spelled."

  Tom's convinced me to honor the alphabetic principle, however.  From now on, I spell it <chooldrin>.

  JL

Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Charles Doyle
Subject: Re: ~chooldrin
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

>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/ ( 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

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



---------------------------------
Talk is cheap. Use Yahoo! Messenger to make PC-to-Phone calls.  Great rates starting at 1¢/min.

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