Merkins

Fri Oct 20 16:14:03 UTC 2006

Thanks Bev,

Many years ago I'm from r-full Danbury CT, 60 miles from NY City, 10 miles
from NY state line.  There is a dialect nuance there.  It's a sharp short a,
as opposed to a flat one, such as in S Jersey.  My kids point it out all the
time.  I like my West CT short a better than their South NJ one.  I suppose
it's a full phoneme shift, but it's not lexical so don't differentiate it in
my system.

Tom Zurinskas
USA CT20, TN3, NJ32, FL4+
See truespel.com and the 4 truespel books at authorhouse.com.

>
>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OHIO.EDU>
>Subject:      Re: Merkins
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Although first language acquisition is pretty much complete by age 5, the
>same is not true for dialect acquisition, which can continue to change
>fairly easily until adolescence and even somewhat after that (as in your
>college years).  Complete mastery of a new dialect ("native speaker
>competence") may not be possible, esp. if you and your parents are from
>somewhere else, but a high degree of adaptation is possible.
>
>BTW, my in-laws were from Ballmer, Meralin (again, I'd put a schwa in
>there), so I'm quite familiar with that dialect (plural 'yous', 'wait on' =
>wait for, 'on' pronounced 'awn', etc.  The last pron. is common throughout
>the South Midland, so-called, including PA, MD, WV, eastern OH, eastern KY,
>etc.--the same Don/dawn --> dawn phenomenon discussed earlier on this
>list).
>
>Are you from eastern CT or western CT?  Are you r-less or r-ful?  Generally
>New England splits down the middle on this; and it would surely affect your
>alphabetic principle-based pronunciation rules!
>
>Beverly Flanigan
>Linguistics
>Ohio University
>(lived in MN first 25 years, since then in MO, IN, and OH)
>
>At 01:02 AM 10/20/2006, you wrote:
> >I've never consciously heard "merkins" for "Americans" until a post I got
> >from an Australian who spelled it out so I suppose they say it that way
>in
> >the outback.  I do know folks from Philly call the state of Maryland
> >"Merlin".
> >
> >It would be a good thing to see where our personal dialects are from.
>I've
> >put my name, country and years lived in various states in my personal
> >signature.  I assume from what I gather here, that dialect is locked in
>at
> >age 5.  All agree?  Personnally I find that after college in TN my speech
> >changed there and changes to a southern drawl when I go back there or to
>a
> >Southern state.
> >
> >Tom Z
> >
> >Tom Zurinskas   USA CT20, TN3, NJ32, FL-4+
> >See truespel.com and the 4 truespel books at authorhouse.com.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >>From: Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OHIO.EDU>
> >>Reply-To: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> >>Subject: Re: Merkins
> >>Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2006 22:27:04 -0400
> >>
> >>---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >>-----------------------
> >>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >>Poster:       Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OHIO.EDU>
> >>Subject:      Re: Merkins
> >>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >>At 12:40 PM 10/19/2006, you wrote:
> >> >I don't think changing traditional spelling (tradspel) is doable.  Ted
> >> >Roosevelt in consort with Andrew Carnegie tried and couldn't change a
> >>word,
> >> >even through an executive order.  Webster was the last success, at
>least
> >>in
> >> >USA.
> >> >
> >> >So the only thing possible to influence is pronunciation, keeping it
> >> >consistent with tradspel to help learners by maintaining letter sound
> >> >correspondance.  But I see no mechanism to do that except for our
> >>schools.
> >> >Now that "phonemic awareness" (Stanovich) is seen to be the "single
>most
> >> >important attribute exhibited by successful readers" (to paraphrase),
> >>there
> >> >may be more action in that area.  I think the trend away from phonics
>in
> >>the
> >> >past for early reading teachers has fostered disparate pronunciations.
>  I
> >> >advocate for USA English the Writing to Read approach by IBM of the
>80's,
> >> >only using truespel, which has no special symbols.
> >> >
> >> >"Merkins".  Is that an Ausy term?
> >>
> >>No, no--'Merkins' is a tried and true American English
> >>pronunciation!  Listen to Newt Gingrich (if you can stand to), and
>you'll
> >>hear him call us "Mer(a)kins" (I'd put a schwa in there).  It's
> >>Philly/Baltimore/east Pennsylvania dialect, and maybe more (NJ? Del?).
>The
> >>first syllable is the same as in 'Murray'.  Recall our
> >>Mary/merry/marry/Murray discussion a while back?  Another problem with
>the
> >>alphabetic principle--people just won't obey it!
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> >Tom Z
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >>From: RonButters at AOL.COM
> >> >>
> >> >>Do you advocate, then, quite different spelling conventions (more
>than
> >> >>the=20
> >> >>trivial differences that we now see) for the England, Scotland,
>Wales,
> >> >>Irela=
> >> >>nd,=20
> >> >>Jamaica, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, India, etc.? Or should
> >>they
> >> >>a=
> >> >>ll=20
> >> >>have to speak Merkin? It seems to me that this would make English a
>MUCH
> >> >>mor=
> >> >>e=20
> >> >>DIFFICULT language to learn as a 2nd language.
> >> >>
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