an AAVE final CC reduction by Sen. Obama?

Charles Doyle cdoyle at UGA.EDU
Wed Oct 24 16:45:06 UTC 2007


Of course, Southerners--black and white, and perhaps AAVE-influenced speakers elsewhere--tend to manifest the word "interest" without the final [-t].  Thence the possible pluralizing of "interest" as "interes'es."  I believe I myself tend to use something like a zero-plural (phonologically speaking) for the word (as pronounced [-t]-lessly). In any case, the /-sts/ cluster is just TOO MUCH!

--Charlie
_____________________________________________________________

---- Original message ----
>Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2007 11:37:33 -0400
>From: Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>
>It's hard to say. IMO, it's definitely a tip of the slung, but it could very well have been motivated by an underlying BE form. It's happened to me. Indeed, it can even occur in writing, let alone in speech. There are forms that you're so accustomed to using that it never occurs to you that they're not universal, until members of The Other Group start looking confused, as was the case in my "fuck over" anecdote.
>
>-Wilson

>
>On 10/13/07, Mark Mandel <thnidu at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> In the last hour Sen. Barack Obama was being interviewed on NPR News. I wasn't listening closely, but I'm pretty sure I heard him say "defend U.S. /'IntrIsIz/ and citizens" (2nd & 3rd vowels as barred I). It struck me because it seemed quite out of place in his speech.
>>
>> m a m

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



More information about the Ads-l mailing list