Barbara Walters
Laurence Horn
laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Mon Feb 23 18:23:43 UTC 2009
At 10:05 AM -0800 2/23/09, Dave Wilton wrote:
>While she was born in Brookline, Mass., Barbara Walters grew up in
>Manhattan. I'm not sure exactly when she moved to New York, but it was
>fairly early in her childhood. In her late teens, the family moved to Miami.
>I'm not sure how valid any ascription of a New England accent would be to
>her.
Maybe she watched too many Bugs Bunny cartoons.
LH
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
>RonButters at AOL.COM
>Sent: Monday, February 23, 2009 8:42 AM
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject: Barbara Walters
>
>Some scholar or other attributes BW's intervocalic r-weakening to a Rhode
>Island dialect, not Massachusetts. I'm not able to check this now. However,
>contrary to what Larry [lawi] said earlier, lablization of /r/ is certainly
>not
>unknown in various dialects of English (>[babwa waltowz])--cf. Elmer Fudd in
>the
>old cartoons.
>
>In a message dated 2/23/09 10:59:32 AM, bhneed at GMAIL.COM writes:
>
>
>> I am not a native of Massachusetts, but i lived north of Boston for
>> nine years from 9.5. I never heard anyone up in Essex county who
>> sounded like Barbara Walters--and no one ever pronounced my first name
>> the way she is stereotyped as saying hers. (I remember people in my
>> neck of the woods making fun of her!)
>>
>> Barbara
>>
>> Barbara Need
>>
>> P.S. That I never acquired a Northshore accent was a conscious
>> decision on my part. I thought the non-rhoticity and linking-R ugly,
>> and I resented being told by my spelling teacher that I had
>> mispronounced _aunt_ ([Ant] where [A] is ash). B
>>
>> On 22 Feb 2009, at 11:54 PM, Paul Johnston wrote:
>>
>> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> > -----------------------
>> > Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> > Poster: Paul Johnston <paul.johnston at WMICH.EDU>
>> > Subject: Re: ~ (UNCLASSIFIED)
>> >
>>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>---
>> >
>> > Comments from natives of Massachusetts are appreciated here, but
>> > impressionistically, her most salient feature, the lip /r/, is
>> > probably a dialect feature in Worcester, MA, where she originally
>> > comes from, and I've heard it from a number of people from west of
>> > Boston myself, as well as a number of obviously local contractors on
>> > New England-based programs like This Old House, and the late Sen. and
>> > ex-Presidential candidate Paul Tsongas (from Lowell, MA). ( Not a
>> > scientific sample, I know--and I'd love to know the distribution of
>> > this feature. It's not in Providence, RI.) Otherwise, I hear a
>> > mixture of New York City and New England features, particularly in
>> > her vowel system.
>> >
>> > Paul Johnston
>> > On Feb 22, 2009, at 4:08 PM, Alison Murie wrote:
>> >
>> >> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> >> -----------------------
>> >> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> >> Poster: Alison Murie <sagehen7470 at ATT.NET>
>> >> Subject: Re: ~ (UNCLASSIFIED)
>> >> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>> >> ---------
>> >>
>> >> On Feb 22, 2009, at 3:09 PM, Paul Johnston wrote:
>> >>
>> >>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> >>> -----------------------
>> >>> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> >>> Poster: Paul Johnston <paul.johnston at WMICH.EDU>
>> >>> Subject: Re: ~ (UNCLASSIFIED)
>> >>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>> >>> ----------
>> >>>
>> >>> 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
>> >>
>> >> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> >> 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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