ADS-L Digest - 13 Mar 2008 to 14 Mar 2008 (#2008-75) (Coffin/also casket)

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

let me try to untangle this...

On Mar 15, 2008, at 7:49 AM, Geraldine Hizer wrote:

> In a message dated 3/14/2008 11:04:00 P.M. Central Daylight Time,
> LISTSERV at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU writes:
>
> Date:    Fri, 14 Mar 2008 17:24:01 -0400
> From:   Paul Johnston <paul.johnston at WMICH.EDU>
> Subject: Re: ADS-L  Digest - 12 Mar 2008 to 13 Mar 2008 (#2008-74)
> (Coughin/coffin)
>
> It's not laziness.  Or g-dropping,  because, unless you're from parts
> of Longg Island or the West Midlands of  England, there is no /g/.
> Just a different dialect  system.

this was about "coughin'", in response to an earlier posting by GH.

PJ's answer was somewhat playful, and GH (quoted below) clearly didn't
get the point.

what's popularly called "g-dropping" in english does not involve an
actual alternation between /g/ and zero.  except in a few dialect
areas (alluded to by PJ above), the alternation is between /N/ (engma,
the velar nasal stop) and /n/ (the alveolar nasal stop).

the popular name comes from the fact that /N/ is *spelled* "ng", so
that for the alternative pronunciations, the spelling for one has a
"g" (the letter "g") in it while the spelling for the other lacks a
"g" (the absence of which, *in the spelling*, is indicated by an
apostrophe).  the alternation primarily affects the /IN/ suffix
attached to verbs, for which the pattern is:
   the variable (ING):
     variant /IN/, spelled: ing
     variant /In/, spelled: in'

this is surely the most-studied phonological variable in english.
almost all speakers of english have some occurrences of /In/ in their
speech (even when they think they don't ever "drop their g's"); the
factors associated with the choice of /In/ vs. /IN/ are many and
complex.

but calling the use of the /In/ variant a "different dialect system"
is stretching things.  like i said, almost everyone has at least some /
In/, but so far as i know, no one has invariant /In/.

> I am neither from Long(g) Island or the 'West Midlands of England'
> (ancestrally, perhaps), but there is no such word as "coughin" in my
> own lexicon  or
> that of anyone else (unless very obscure and possibly OBE-derived).

you almost surely have some /In/ pronunciations in your speech.
granted, an occurrence of /goIn/ does not represent a separate lexeme
(a.k.a. lexical item) from an occurrence of /goIN/, but an occurrence
of /goIn/ is certainly an occurrence of the lexeme GO; /goIn/ and /
goIN/ are alternative pronunciations of an inflectional form (often
called the "present participle") of the lexeme GO.

> What IS the difficulty here? Without the appended 'g', it isn't a
> word!

now we're in some nasty territory about the many uses of the word
"word" in ordinary english.  my guess is that "it isn't a word" here
is intended only to convey that /In/ variants are not formal standard
english (this is similar to the use of "word" when people maintain
that "ain't" is not a word of english).

GH, this isn't a technical mailing list; it's open to everyone
interested in dialects.  but we presuppose *some* knowledge about
languistic structure and variation.  if you don't have this, you
should be willing to ask and learn.  if you're not willing to do that,
people will simply disregard your postings.

arnold

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