"Process continuum"

[Wilson Gray]

Uh, down in East Texas, in BE, at least, CLASP is pronounced CLAPS and
the verb CAN [kIn] is easily distinguished from CAN'T [kein(t)]. The
metal packaging CAN is always "TIN [kein]," like "[eiNk] PIN," so
there's no problem there, either. And, given that CAN is [kein],
Spokane could never be spokAN, even though there would be people who
would say SpokAN, when it was brought to their attention, though they
normally say Spokein, like unto my buddy David, who says "street,"
when it's brought to his attention, though he normally says "skreek."

FWIW, from watching BET, it appears that, among some BE speakers,
[eiNk pIn] is now used for what is otherwise known as a "ballpoint."

-Wilson

On Thu, Sep 4, 2008 at 11:30 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "Process continuum"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 2:23 PM +0000 9/4/08, ronbutters at aol.com wrote:
>>What you describe as a "process continuum" is what linguists call
>>"variable rule". That is why I said that the CCS rule is variable.
>>However, linguists rarely use the term "slurred speech" except in
>>describing the speech of people who are intoxicated; "unintelligible
>>speech" is not studiable, is it?
>>
>>It is well-known that /t/ and /d/ are variably deleted after /n/ in
>>DON'T and WON'T. I have also heard this in CAN'T as well, though
>>that can lead to ambiguity. N'T deletion is far less global than the
>>CRR.
>>
> Hearers often use either vowel quality or stress pattern ("I can GO"
> vs. "I CAN'T GO") rather than absence/presence of final [t] to
> disambiguate "can" and "can't", although in some contexts, e.g. where
> "can" is contrastively stressed, no disambiguation is not secure.
>
> LH
>
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