[hw-] v. [w]

[Beverly Flanigan]

Oops, my bad.  A total slip of the hand, of course.  Dylan was trying to
imitate Southern speech.  Guess I was thinking of the Beatles imitating
American speech and did a reverse attribution.

At 06:16 PM 8/1/2007, you wrote:
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>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       "Dennis R. Preston" <preston at MSU.EDU>
>Subject:      Re: [hw-] v. [w]
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Why would /ai/ monphthongization and r-loss indicate an attempt at
>British Englsh. Why not southern US? Am I missing something (in which
>case /ae/ in "dance" and "France" would be right on).
>
>dInIs
>
> >---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >-----------------------
> >Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >Poster:       Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OHIO.EDU>
> >Subject:      Re: [hw-] v. [w]
> >-------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ------
> >
> >At 05:19 PM 8/1/2007, you wrote:
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> >>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >>Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> >>Subject:      Re: [hw-] v. [w]
> >>------------------------------------------------------------------------
> -------
> >>
> >>On 8/1/07, Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at ohio.edu> wrote:
> >>  >
> >>  > [David A. Daniel wrote:]
> >>  > >
> >>  > > [Scott LaFaive wrote:]
> >>  > >
> >>  > > >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?
> >>  > >
> >>  > >Bob Dylan, Lay Lady Lay. He could blow out a candle with his
> >>"...stay with
> >>  > >your man a hhhhhhhwile"
> >>  >
> >>  > 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?
> >>
> >>"Lay Lady Lay" wasn't that early of a song in the Dylan oeuvre -- it's from
> >>1969, off the "Nashville Skyline" album (his 9th album in 8 years). I don't
> >>recall what Trudgill has to say on the matter, but my sense is that Dylan
> >>didn't lose his singing accent in the way that the Beatles and the Stones
> >>eventually gave up on Americanized phonology as Trudgill describes.
> >>
> >>
> >>--Ben Zimmer
> >>
> >>------------------------------------------------------------
> >>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
> >Actually, Trudgill only cites one song from Dylan, and it's neither of the
> >two I cited above; I use those two in class, along with this one from
> >Trudgill:
> >
> >You may be an [aembaes at d@]
> >To England or [@] France
> >You may [la:k] to gamble
> >You [ma:t] [la:k] to dance . . . (from _Slow Train Coming_, 1979)
> >
> >He notes that Dylan, "from Minnesota, in the American Mid-West," has /ai/ =
> >[ai] and non-prevocalic /r/ in his speech but uses [a:] and r-loss in his
> >singing style (1983, p. 146).  He fails to note, though, that Dylan used
> >[ae] in both 'France' and 'dance'--typical of his half-assed attempt at
> >British English.  But I must admit I really haven't followed him since
> >about that time.
> >
> >------------------------------------------------------------
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>
>
>--
>Dennis R. Preston
>University Distinguished Professor
>Department of English
>15C Morrill Hall
>Michigan State University
>East Lansing, MI 48824
>517-353-4736
>preston at msu.edu
>
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>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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