/w/-/hw/ again

[Wilson Gray]

Quite so, dInIs, WRT my eye-dialect. I'm mildly surprised by your
"Ima." This form is relatively new to me. I.e. I say "Imoang"  (if the
following segment is not a velar, then /N/ drops and the nasalized /o/
is left behind), but my generation-younger half-brothers say only
"Ima" for "I'm going to."

On Dec 28, 2007 7:00 PM, Dennis Preston <preston at msu.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Dennis Preston <preston at MSU.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: /w/-/hw/ again
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Actually my casual speech pronunciation of this is just /amoh~/
> (where /oh/ equals open-o and ~ indicates nasalization of the
> preceding vowel). That's all there is to my (and many others like me)
> "I'm going to." The "initial  /m/" is from the prediuctable
> syllabification of the string. The /g/ in Wilson's representation
> does not come from 'I'm going to' but from the subsequent 'git.' If
> it was, for example, "I'm going to see" (not git), there would be no
> /g/.
>
> In my even faster speech representation, the nasalization disappears
> altogether and gives something that sounds like the name "Ima."
>
> dInIs
>
> PS: Please don't write relating this to Ima Hogg and her putative
> sister Ura. No connection.
>
>
>
> >---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >-----------------------
> >Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >Poster:       Mark Mandel <thnidu at GMAIL.COM>
> >Subject:      Re: /w/-/hw/ again
> >-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> >"I moang..." got my attention. I hear it in my mind as matching a usage I
> >think I hear very often, which I always have equated to "I'm going to" --
> >here, with the nasal maybe assimilating in place to the /g/ of "git". Am I
> >understanding it right? Whence the initial /m/?   From  "I'm (a-)going
> >to..."?
> >
> >m a m
> >
> >On Dec 28, 2007 5:09 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >>  A blues verse:
> >>
> >>  I moang git me a blade
> >>  One thet I kin affode
> >>  Too lawng t' be ey knife
> >>  Too shawt t' be ey swode
> >>
> >>
> >
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>
>
> --
> Dennis R. Preston
> University Distinguished Professor
> Department of English
> Morrill Hall 15-C
> Michigan State University
> East Lansing, MI 48864 USA
>
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
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-----
                                              -Sam'l Clemens

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