Surprise

[Tom Zurinskas]

The effect of TV.  Very interesting.  I think TV is the very reason awe-dropping is going on.  Many west coast folks are bringing that dialect change into the media.  My wife's caught it now.  This morining it was ~kaafee instead of ~kaufee for the word "coffee".  

But that change is an unconscious one.  

 

Standing up against r-dropping is a good thing.  It preserves the alphabetical principle.  Standing up against awe-dropping as well.  Unconsciously, America is dropping a phoneme of English.  

Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL5+ 
see truespel.com


 
 





 
> Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2009 11:23:30 -0500
> From: wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
> Subject: Re: Surprise
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> 
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Re: Surprise
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> I rarely pronounce the first r in "surprise," but I can't imagine eliding it
> in "surmise" (now that I try, it actually seems difficult!).
> 
> You may not believe this, but...when I was four or five I began to notice
> that most New Yorkers, including my family, were what I would now call
> "non-rhotic" - quite different from most of the old-movie cowboys I was
> watching every afternoon on Channel 13.
> 
> I deliberately set out to get rhotic so that, when I grew up and went
> West, I'd fit right in with Roy and the other punchers. And you know
> what? My dream partly came true! I rarely miss an r !
> 
> Coincidence? Or...?
> 
> JL
> On Tue, Feb 17, 2009 at 10:57 AM, <ronbutters at aol.com> wrote:
> 
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster: ronbutters at AOL.COM
> > Subject: Re: Surprise
> >
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > This is variable in my speech, though the /r/ tends to be realized only in
> > nonallegro speech. I expect this is true of most rhotic dialects. I don't
> > THINK that I have deletion in "surmise"--but I am wary of self-reports
> > (maybe it gets weakened variably in allegro speech).
> >
> >
> >
> > Other such words: surreal ...
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Randy Alexander <strangeguitars at GMAIL.COM>
> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > Sent: Mon, 16 Feb 2009 11:07 am
> > Subject: [ADS-L] Surprise
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > 1. Does anyone with a rhotic dialect rhoticize the first "r" in
> > "surprise" (I don't).
> >
> > 2. Does anyone know of any other words that in your rhotic dialect
> > that have an unrhoticized postvocalic "r"?
> >
> > --
> > Randy Alexander
> > Jilin City, China
> > My Manchu studies blog:
> > http://www.bjshengr.com/manchu
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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