Dyslexia and English Orthography was "surprise"

[Paul Johnston]

The dialects that have this are either non-rhotic now, or
historically were so.  There's a merger of an earlier /wOnt/~/wDnt/ =
were not, with early /r/ dropping before alveolars, stemming from
some sort of Eastern English settlement, most probably, with the /
wont/ from will not, it seems to me.  The distribution listed (New
England + E VA, E NC) is consistent with settlement from East Anglia
(North) and the Northeast Midlands (South), both areas of which have
this /r/ dropping, and something like /D/ or /^/ for this vowel.

Paul Johnston
On Feb 20, 2009, at 8:34 PM, Bill Palmer wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Bill Palmer <w_a_palmer at BELLSOUTH.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Dyslexia and English Orthography was "surprise"
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> ---------
>
> The "won't" that is articulated in eastern NC in the sense I have
> described
> is clearly what most of us would interpret as the normal
> contraction of
> "will not".  No "r" sound is discerned.
>
> Bill P.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Mark Mandel" <thnidu at GMAIL.COM>
> To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Sent: Friday, February 20, 2009 8:14 PM
> Subject: Re: Dyslexia and English Orthography was "surprise"
>
>
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>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Mark Mandel <thnidu at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: Dyslexia and English Orthography was "surprise"
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>> ----------
>>
>> On Fri, Feb 20, 2009 at 7:52 PM, Bill Palmer
>> <w_a_palmer at bellsouth.net>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Well, I appreciate that explanation.
>>>
>>> So let me move on to a question that I think this list is
>>> supposed to
>>> address.  If not, then just slam-dunk me.
>>>
>>> In North Carolina, where I live, and particularly in the eastern
>>> part,
>>> there
>>> is a tendency to use "won't" to mean "was not" or "were not".
>>> Ex:  Q: "Who ate that last piece of pie?"
>>>       A: "It won't me".
>>>
>>> Does this practice exist anywhere else?  I have lived in and
>>> travelled
>>> thru
>>> much of the South, and don't recall hearing it anywhere else.
>>>
>>> Bill Palmer
>>
>> I can't reply knowledgeably, but let me assure you that in terms of
>> appropriateness your question IS a slam-dunk.
>>
>> Is this the pronunciation I've seen written as "warn't" in the same
>> sort of context? "about 198,000" rgh ("raw Google hits") for
>> "warn't".
>> The first page or so shows a few ringers, but most of them look real,
>> such as
>>
>> - it warn't always like this [blog title]
>> - What does 'there warn't much sand in my craw' mean?
>> - Day 140: "We said there warn't no home like a raft, after all.
>> Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a raft don't.
>> You
>> feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft."
>> - And when it come to character, warn't it Compeyson as had been to
>> the school, and warn't it his schoolfellows as was in this position
>> and in that...
>>
>> Those last two are from Twain (Huckleberry Finn) and Dickens! (_Great
>> Expectations_, in Google Book Search, http://tinyurl.com/d5qndc)
>>
>> Mark A. Mandel
>>
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