isoglosses for hw/w

[David Bowie]

From:    Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>

> If North Midland distinguishes between, e.g. "hem, ten" and "him,
> tin," a distinction unknown in California, then U.S. West can't
> possibly be what happened when North Midland expanded westward.

Well, like i said--lies my lx professors told me.

> BTW, has anyone besides me, who have a special reason for doing so,
> noticed how Southern (I use the term in its loosest sense, being but
> feebly learned in dialectology; once the technical terms move much
> beyond "isogloss," I need a cab in order to catch up) the speech of
> the farming areas of California sounds? I've felt a draft in towns as
> large as Fresno and even though that was the first place that I ever
> was in in which public signage, e.g. in the Greyhound station, was in
> Spanish as well as in English.

I don't have it here, but doesn't the ANAE data show an island of fairly
strongly "Southern" features clustered in and around Bakersfield,
California? I know I've heard (from linguists and non-linguists) who've
noticed the "Southern"-ness of the are that this might be a result of
the massive Okie migration to the area during the Dust Bowl, but i have
no idea if that's a reasonable explanation.

--
David Bowie                               University of Central Florida
     Jeanne's Two Laws of Chocolate: If there is no chocolate in the
     house, there is too little; some must be purchased. If there is
     chocolate in the house, there is too much; it must be consumed.

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