No compensatory lengthening in Bostonian?

[Wilson Gray]

The other week, I heard a TV ad for a dentist whom the voiceover-er
referred to as "Doct[^] H[a]t." "Doctor _Hot_"?! That caught my
attention. When I looked at the screen, I was disappointed to see that
the good dentist's surname was actually a very mundane "Hart," but
much surprised by the shortness of the vowel. OTOH, I guess that I
shouldn't have been. The nickname of Dorchester High School has been
"_Dot_ High" since before I came here in 1972. The dentist later had
the ad redone with a voiceover-er who could say "Doct[r] Ha[r]t."

Sad, this lack of respect for one's own local dialect. ;-(

-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Mark Twain

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