Dyslexia and English Orthography was "surprise"

[Laurence Horn]

At 3:29 PM -0500 2/21/09, Paul Johnston wrote:
>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.

Can you remind me (and maybe us) of what /D/ is in the system you're
assuming?  In the version of ASCII IPA I use, it's the initial
consonant of "this", which it clearly isn't in this context.

LH

>
>Paul Johnston
>On Feb 20, 2009, at 8:34 PM, Bill Palmer wrote:
>
>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>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"
>>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>---------
>>
>>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"
>>
>>>---------------------- Information from the mail
>>>header -----------------------
>>>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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>>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
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>
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