~ (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Alison Murie]

On Feb 22, 2009, at 3:09 PM, Paul Johnston wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Paul Johnston <paul.johnston at WMICH.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: ~ (UNCLASSIFIED)
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>
> Tom,
> That;'s because all the local Standards are 95% similar (I'd put it a
> little less, but not much) on a phonemic basis. Most of the
> differences are on the sub-phonemic level.  The consonant systems,
> phonemically, are nearly identical all over the US, for instance.
> The vowel systems do differ phonemically, but not much with this kind
> of variety--your "awe-dropping", rhoticity vs. non-rhoticity (only a
> few non-rhotic or, more likely, variably rhotic newscasters, but
> those that are, Walters, King etc. are known for it) .  Some lexical
> incidence differences appear in individual words, though this is the
> stuff that the pronunciation guides concentrate on.  I'll give you
> actual stats when I'm finished if you want to see them.  You'll be
> surprised.
>
> Paul Johnston
~~~~~~~~
Walters?  I've lived most of my life out of range of her voice, but
the few times I have heard it  I have assumed her speech to be
completely idiosyncratic, largely attributable to a speech impediment,
not a dialect.
AM

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