Dawgs

[Beverly Flanigan]

Labov has tested many of these "near mergers" and has found that outsiders
generally perceive them as full mergers (homophones) but that
insiders/users can usually detect the subtle differences--though even they
can get confused sometimes when they hear the words out of context.  See
his studies of Birmingham, Chicago, Philadelphia, and elsewhere.

At 04:31 PM 10/26/2006, you wrote:
>I'm as rhotic as a native New Yorker can get, but the sauce/source merger
>sounds almost inevitably true for some speakers.
>
>   I may, in fact, be one of those people "leveled" by radio and TV.
>
>   No kidding. I can recall cultivating "r"s in first and second grade
> because I wanted to sound more like Gene Autrey.  Most of my classmates,
> IIRC, were much less rhotic.
>
>   JL
>
>   Paul Johnston <paul.johnston at WMICH.EDU> wrote:
>   ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
>Sender: American Dialect Society
>Poster: Paul Johnston
>
>Subject: Re: Dawgs
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Yes--if we take "tenseness" = " peripherality". Some reports
>(Labov?) suggest a near-merger of sauce/source with the V1 of the
>first one less "tense' or peripheral. I can't check it with my
>speech as I'm rhotic, but if I imitate it, it sounds like possible NYC.
>
>Paul Johnston
>On Oct 26, 2006, at 2:59 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender: American Dialect Society
> > Poster: Jonathan Lighter
> > Subject: Re: Dawgs
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > ---------
> >
> > That sounds about right, Paul. Is "tenseness" not factor here ?
> >
> > JL
> >
> > Paul Johnston
>wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender: American Dialect Society
> > Poster: Paul Johnston
> >
> > Subject: Re: Dawgs
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > ---------
> >
> > Ranges from a raised backwards-c long monophthong (in careful
> > speech), through a diphthong starting with this vowel and going to
> > schwa (thus, [O@]), through [o@] to [U@]. V1's are slightly
> > centralized. I don't have a lengthened V1 in mine, but if I come out
> > with a monophthongal variant, it's a long one. The stereotype is
> > probably [U@].
> >
> > In a pattern that throws Midwesterners, I have this vowel in dog, but
> > centralized script a (+ or - following schwa) in all other -og words.
> >
> > Paul Johnston
> >
> >
> > On Oct 26, 2006, at 2:12 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >
> >> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >> -----------------------
> >> Sender: American Dialect Society
> >> Poster: Jonathan Lighter
> >> Subject: Re: Dawgs
> >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> >> -
> >> ---------
> >>
> >> How does one indicate the notorious NYC "dawg," also heard in
> >> "cawfee"?
> >>
> >> It's extra tense, I think. Not elongated, though.
> >>
> >> JL
> >>
> >> "Mark A. Mandel" wrote:
> >> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >> -----------------------
> >> Sender: American Dialect Society
> >> Poster: "Mark A. Mandel"
> >> Subject: Re: Dawgs
> >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> >> -
> >> ---------
> >>
> >> Bev wrote:
> >>>>>
> >> Actually, I'll modify my vowel a bit: In this area, at least, the
> >> core
> >> vowel is midway between /a/ and /O/, the so-called "turned script a".
> >> <<<
> >>
> >> Cardinal "turned script a" is low back rounded: same jaw and tongue
> >> position
> >> as "script a", but with lip rounding. Is that what you mean?
> >> http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/IPA/vowels.html
> >>
> >> m a m
> >>
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