ADS-L Digest - 22 Feb 2009 to 23 Feb 2009 (#2009-55)

[Amy West]

OK, now I'm understanding what Paul Johnston described as the lip
/r/. (I don't have a good phonological background).

I'm here in Worcester, though not a native. There is only one kid in
my son's cohort who speaks like that, and it sounds funny to the rest
of the cohort.

Woo State has a Communications Sciences and Disorders department with
a clinic. If people are interested in investigating this as an aspect
of a standard or nonstandard Worcester accent, perhaps we can enlist
their aid in getting some hard data. Not just from the clinic, which
would be biased, but having students do surveys, etc.

Right now, my impression is that if it is not classified as a "speech
impediment/defect" it is a nonstandard variant of the local
accent/pronunciation.

---Amy West
residing in Worcester almost 4 years
working here almost 8 years


>Date:    Mon, 23 Feb 2009 11:45:41 -0500
>From:    Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>Subject: Re: ~ (UNCLASSIFIED)
>
>At 9:58 AM -0600 2/23/09, Barbara Need wrote:
>>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
>
>
>I just checked with my daughter, who recently endured...er, spent
>four years as an undergraduate in Worcester (a.k.a. Wuhsta), and she
>doesn't recall anyone speaking quite like BW, despite the rampant
>non-rhoticity.  "Babra" si, "Babwa" no.
>
>LH

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