Off-gliding to G

[Paul Johnston]

It was (according to Roger Lass) usual in true upper-class speech as
late as the early 20c.
Ii was the MIDDLE classes --in the British sense here--who were
especially conscious of "correctness".  The upper classes set  the
tone (and here, were apparently just being conservative, retaining
the reflex of ME -inde/-ende) and didn't have to worry about adopting
a spelling pronunciation as much.

Paul Johnston


On Sep 25, 2009, at 2:43 PM, Laurence Horn 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: Off-gliding to G
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---------
>
> At 1:37 PM -0500 9/25/09, Barbara Need wrote:
>> 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
>
> Dorothy Sayers's Lord Peter Wimsey affects this "g-dropping" in
> participles as an instance of reverse snobbery (as I understand it).
>
> LH
>
>>
>> Barbara Need
>> Chicago
>>
>> On 23 Sep 2009, at 6:37 AM, Lynne Murphy wrote:
>>
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>>> 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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