Pronunciation question (from L. Urdang)

[Laurence Urdang]

Thanks to all who replied on didn't, etc.  I shall wade through the scores of replies and might respond.
   I should have known better than to select a phonetic subject which cannot be properly transcribed in IPA in email without considerable massaging.
  Also, I should have mentioned that the syllabics were shown for the contractions only after voiced or unvoiced dentals.  They were also used for words like cradle, but mainly when the vowel in the preceding syllable is "long."
  L. Urdang

RonButters at AOL.COM wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: RonButters at AOL.COM
Subject: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Re:=20=A0=20=A0=20=A0=20Re:=20[ADS-L]=20Pronuncia?
= =?ISO-8859-1?Q?tion=20question=20(from=20L.=20Urdang)?=
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In a message dated 5/29/07 10:23:17 AM, t-irons at MOREHEAD-ST.EDU writes:


> I have noticed the change in the pronunciation of the contracted n't
> at the end of aux verbs among especially younger speakers but had not
> been able to figure out exactly what the change is.=A0 I think he has it
> right.=A0 What is something like a syllabic /n/ for me has evolved into
> a full schwa.
>=20

No one has mentioned that "didn't" has often been pronunced with a glottal=20
stop allophone of the /d/. My sense is that I am hearing this less among the=
=20
young, with an unvoiced /d/ instead. I wonder if this is what Larry is notic=
ing.

Also, I don't hear a schwa so much as a barred-I. So what I am hearing is=20

[dItInt] (unaspirated [t])

rather than=20

[dI?Int].

Of course, I am in the South (but the majority of my students) are not. By=20
the way, they don't say

[studIns} or [stju?ns] only [studns].

It is perhaps worth pointing out that "Oh no you didn't!" is a kind of buzz=20
phrase among the young, patterned (I think) after some television comedy ski=
t=20
pseudo-Puerto-Rican pronunciation.=20


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