FYI: linguistics in the news: case of the missing "t"

[Wilson Gray]

When I was a child in saint Louis During The War, white kids also used
"di'nt" [dI:nt]. We colored kids used "did'n'" [dI:dn]. This rule
operated throughout the lexicon, so that it took context to
distinguish, e.g. "wooden" from "wouldn't."

-Wilson

On Wed, Nov 4, 2009 at 12:41 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: FYI: linguistics in the news: case of the missing "t"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 10:13 AM -0800 11/4/09, James Smith wrote:
>>http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=8548383
>>
>
> Funny--that's the shibboleth for Connecticut (e.g. around New
> Bri?ain) that we've discussed.  It would help to have had someone
> with a bit more willingness to learn (if not actual expertise) to
> write the column, so that different environments for glottalized t
> might have been distinguished. I suspect, for example, that the
> "mow-en" transcription actually represents a nasalized diphthong
> followed immediately by a glottal stop; that wouldn't seem too exotic
> around these parts.  I think I may pronounce it that way myself.
> (Could this really be pronouned with an oral diphthong, as in
> "Mao-in"?)  And the author might have gone on to remark on the
> "missing d" in "No you di'nt"...
>
> LH
>
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--
-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

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