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

[Wilson Gray]

I agree, except for one minor quibble. Is there really an audible
distinction between an unrounded /u/ and a barred /i/? I willing to be
taken to school on this point.

-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Mark Twain



On Wed, Feb 25, 2009 at 11:55 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
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> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Â  Â  Â  Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject: Â  Â  Â Re: ADS-L Digest - 22 Feb 2009 to 23 Feb 2009 (#2009-55)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 11:36 AM -0500 2/25/09, Wilson Gray wrote:
>>FWIW, a friend of mine, a native of Worcester, pronounces the name
>>something like "Wistuh." I heard the same or, at least, a very similar
>>pronunciation, used here in Boston by a guy who said that he had been
>>to - not "lived in" - "Wistuh." I'd expect a lower vowel than what is
>>probably an unrounded /u/. Naturally, another possibility is that my
>>hearing simply isn't what it used to be.
>>
>>-Wilson
>
> The *real* natives did front the stressed vowel more than suggested
> by my implied [U] below, but not really lowered to a wedge [^]
> either, I don't think. Â Maybe a stressed barred-i? Â Of course the
> unrounding is a bit tricky to extract because of the rounded /w/ it
> follows, but I think barred-i gets us pretty close: Â neither as back
> as in "wuss" nor as front as in "wistful".
>
> LH
>
>>---
>>All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
>>come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>>-----
>>-Mark Twain
>>
>>
>>
>>On Wed, Feb 25, 2009 at 9:22 AM, Amy West <medievalist at w-sts.com> wrote:
>>> Â ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>>-----------------------
>>> Â Sender: ? Â ? Â ? Â American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> Â Poster: ? Â ? Â ? Â Amy West <medievalist at W-STS.COM>
>>> Â Subject: ? Â ? Â ? Re: ADS-L Digest - 22 Feb 2009 to 23 Feb 2009 (#2009-55)
>>>
>>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>> Â OK, now I'm understanding what Paul Johnston described as the lip
>>> Â /r/. (I don't have a good phonological background).
>>>
>>> Â I'm here in Worcester, though not a native. There is only one kid in
>>> Â my son's cohort who speaks like that, and it sounds funny to the rest
>>> Â of the cohort.
>>>
>>> Â Woo State has a Communications Sciences and Disorders department with
>>> Â a clinic. If people are interested in investigating this as an aspect
>>> Â of a standard or nonstandard Worcester accent, perhaps we can enlist
>>> Â their aid in getting some hard data. Not just from the clinic, which
>>> Â would be biased, but having students do surveys, etc.
>>>
>>> Â Right now, my impression is that if it is not classified as a "speech
>>> Â impediment/defect" it is a nonstandard variant of the local
>>> Â accent/pronunciation.
>>>
>>> Â ---Amy West
>>> Â residing in Worcester almost 4 years
>>> Â working here almost 8 years
>>>
>>>
>>>>Date: ? Â ? Mon, 23 Feb 2009 11:45:41 -0500
>>>>From: ? Â ? 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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>>> Â The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>
>>
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>
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