Pronunciation question (from L. Urdang)

[Jonathan Lighter]

Yeah, "dint."  Not dat I tawk like dat.  Am pretty sure James Jones has some non-New Yorkers say {dint} in _From Here to Eternity_ (written 1946-50).

  Jones grew up in Robinson, Illinois.

  JL

Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Charles Doyle
Subject: Re: Pronunciation question (from L. Urdang)
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I have heard that schwaful pronunciation, but I have no sense of its distribution. In the other direction, though, don't we sometimes hear "didn't" as a monosyllable--almost homophonous with "dint" (perhaps from New Yorkers)?

--Charlie
_____________________________________________________________

---- Original message ----
>Date: Mon, 28 May 2007 22:34:15 -0400
>From: Jesse Sheidlower
>Subject: Pronunciation question (from L. Urdang)
>
>>From Larry Urdang, who was having trouble sending to the list:
>
>----- Forwarded message from Laurence Urdang -----
> Colleagues,
>
> [IPA is not available in my email font. I tried to keyboard the unique characters in Word, then copy them here from there, but that wouldn't work, which is why I have described "X." For some unknown reason, the schwa copied.]
>
> In my many years of experience in establishing the [phonetic symbols and in transcribing the pronunciations of words for dictionaries (Funk & Wagnalls International Edition, Random House Unabridged, Collins English Dictionary, etc.), I have always regarded the n in words like didn’t, wouldn’t, couldn’t, shouldn’t, etc. as a syllabic: ['dIdXt] (where X is a lower-case roman "n", with a tiny circle below it), etc., because that’s the way they were pronounced by native speakers of English.
> In recent years, I have noted that their pronunciation has shifted to the use of a full schwa: ['dIdənt], etc. The change appears to be very deliberate and emphatic: people are pointedly saying the latter rather than the former as if it were a mark of culture or sophistication or, perhaps, just for clarity of articulation.
> Am I hearing things, or has this change been noticed by others? I suggest that it might not be a change but that the schwa pronunciation might be increasing in frequency.
> Has anybody else noticed this, or am I just “hearing things”? Has any written comment appeared on the subject?
> Laurence Urdang
> 4 Laurel Drive
> Old Lyme, CT 06371
> urdang at sbcglobal.net

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