[hw-] v. [w]

[Beverly Flanigan]

At 05:54 PM 7/31/2007, you wrote:
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>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       "David A. Daniel" <dad at POKERWIZ.COM>
>Subject:      Re: [hw-] v. [w]
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> >I don't have an [h] anywhere near my [w]'s (Wisconsin dialect), so I don't
> >even know what this sounds like. Any good sound files for this?
>
> >Scot
>
>Bob Dylan, Lay Lady Lay. He could blow out a candle with his "...stay with
>your man a hhhhhhhwile"
>DAD
>
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As Peter Trudgill pointed out in a 1983 paper ("Acts of Conflicting
Identity"), Dylan tried to use a Midland/Appalachian accent in his early
songs, often with hypercorrection.  Hence "a while" was [e hwail] (or maybe
even [e hwal]?) and "the times they are [e tSendZiN]."  As a Minnesotan,
Dylan would have never used [hw] in his own persona, and I wonder if he
didn't drop it in his later songs too?

Beverly, a native Minnesotan too

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