Off-gliding to G

[Barbara Need]

Lynne,

I wonder how much this might be a reaction to the "g-dropping" in
participles (huntin', fishing', etc.). I have assumed that this was a
shibboleth in England based on its treatment in mysteries (there's at
least one Agatha Christie in which it is a clue!).

Barbara

Barbara Need
Chicago

On 23 Sep 2009, at 6:37 AM, Lynne Murphy wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Lynne Murphy <m.l.murphy at SUSSEX.AC.UK>
> Subject:      Re: Off-gliding to G
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I probably do this from time to time, but my sister-in-law (native
> of South
> London) does it a LOT, though the rest of her family doesn't.  I
> associate
> it with a certain kind of over-enunciative talking that has a certain
> 'lilt' to it as well.  (Sorry, not a very good description.)
>
> Lynne
>
> --On 22 September 2009 12:27 -0700 Grant Barrett
> <gbarrett at WORLDNEWYORK.ORG> wrote:
>
>> I received this query from a listener to the radio show and wonder if
>> anyone has any thoughts about it. Is it something you've noticed
>> yourself as being more common? Can you recommend reading on this
>> particular habit?
>>
>>> I wondered if you were aware that, in your broadcasts, you tend to
>>> pronounce a hard G at the ends of words like "sing". I am running
>>> into this habitual off-gliding more and more with my acting
>>> students. When I point this out to them, they are shocked that you
>>> could say a word like "sing" without that hard G sound.
>>
>>
>> Grant Barrett
>> gbarrett at worldnewyork.org
>
>
>
> Dr M Lynne Murphy
> Senior Lecturer in Linguistics
> Arts B357
> University of Sussex
> Brighton BN1 9QN
>
> phone: +44-(0)1273-678844
> http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com
>
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