Ahra-lessnes in white-Southern speech (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Wilson Gray]

Actually, my point is the opposite. The r-lessness in "gum-mint" was
the exception. All the Southern people interviewed, from the Greater
Louisville Area to the Dothen-Hunstville regions _used_ "r." I was
listening for the good old-fashioned, ahra-less, stereotypical,
Southern drawl and I didn't hear it.

Essentially, I'm just casually wondering whether that dialect is dying
out or whether Kentucky and Deep-Northern Alabama are simply not the
parts of the South where r-lessness is (stereo)typical.

-Wilson

On Mon, Jun 15, 2009 at 1:57 PM, Mullins, Bill
AMRDEC<Bill.Mullins at us.army.mil> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Â  Â  Â  "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> Subject: Â  Â  Â Re: Ahra-lessnes in white-Southern speech (UNCLASSIFIED)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
>
> Can you give some specific example words beyond "gummint" in which this might be seen? Â I live in Huntsville, and might recognize some of this speech.
>
> If I look through the text of the email below, the following pronunciations wouldn't sound odd to my ear:
>
> Ah-meh-kihn (American)
> Suthun (southern)
> Nor-thun-ners (northerners)
> Wheh-thuh (weather)
>
> Bill
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
>> Behalf Of Wilson Gray
>> Sent: Monday, June 15, 2009 10:18 AM
>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>> Subject: Ahra-lessnes in white-Southern speech
>>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header ---------------
>> --------
>> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster: Â  Â  Â  Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject: Â  Â  Â Ahra-lessnes in white-Southern speech
>> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
>> --------
>>
>> Are there any white-Southern speakers left who *don't* use [r] in all
>> the places where Northerners do? I watched a Weather Channel show on
>> the Great Tornado Season of '74. Many ordinary white folk from
>> Kentucky and Alabama were interviewed WRT their memories of that
>> season. Only one speaker, from around Dothan and Huntsville, Alabama,
>> failed to use [r] and that was in only one word: *government*, which
>> he pronounced as approximately "gum mint" [g^m mI at nt].
>>
>> They all used what black speakers usually characterize as the
>> "hillbilly" dialect. The "Southern" dialect is the ahra-less one
>> usually attempted nowadays only by Northern actors attempting to
>> portray Southern-speakers.
>>
>> Is BE the only r-less AmE dialect left with a number of speakers large
>> enough to bother to count?
>> --
>> -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
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
-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

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org