Standard US English Dialect?

[Laurence Horn]

At 9:48 AM -0400 4/16/08, Amy West wrote:
>It's something that the local New Britain area is known for. I don't
>even think of it as belonging to the state as a whole, so I'm really
>surprised to hear of LH mentioning it in his daughter's speech.
>
>However, that may be a very provincial view: certainly it could occur
>in other dialects. But around here (southern New England) it's
>recognized as a marker of that local pronunciation/dialect.

Right, but I think the localization of it to New Britain is a bit of
a folk identification like "Brookynese", prompted in part because the
city's name illustrates the feature in question, which New Haven's
doesn't.  My son, growing up in the same house a couple of years
earlier and attending the same school but hanging out with different
friends, didn't pick it up.  In any event, I'm sure Amy and I are
referring to the same shibboleth, which is not a feature of general
American use, even if we can't describe the phonetics accurately...

LH

>
>---Amy West (lived in New Britain, CT for 8 years)
>
>>Date:    Tue, 15 Apr 2008 07:18:49 -0700
>>From:    "Arnold M. Zwicky" <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU>
>>Subject: Re: Standard US English Dialect?
>>
>>On Apr 15, 2008, at 6:37 AM, Larry Horn wrote:
>>
>>>  ... Connecticutisms (e.g. the glottalizing of intervocalic /t/ in
>>>  [kI?In], New [brI?In]).
>>
>>connecticutism?  isn't this a much more general american feature
>>(outside the south)?  [t'] (or usually [?]) for /t/ after accented
>>vowel and before syllabic n, as in button, Britain, cotton, kitten,
>>written, Patton, beaten, sweeten, brighten, ...
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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