Another Dialect Notes 1909 note

[Tom Zurinskas]

Pronunciation seems to follow the path of least resistence.  Swapping ~b for ~p in Baptist, becoming ~Babtis is an example.  The ~b is easier to say then the ~p by leaving off the fricative part of the ~p.  And why go to the trouble of saying that last ~t.  
 
I think that unfortunate awe-dropping is another example of swapping of an easier-to-say sound for a harder one.  The "awe" sound takes more mouth work.  Replacing it with "ah" makes it easier to say.  
 
Maybe kids learning to talk have a lot to do with future pronunciation.  My cousin's son is always called "Bee" because his sister couldn't say "baby".  This was convenient because father and son had the same name, and you knew who "Bee" was.


Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL7+ 
see truespel.com phonetic spelling


 
 
> Date: Sun, 15 Aug 2010 20:15:16 -0400
> From: hwgray at GMAIL.COM
> Subject: Another Dialect Notes 1909 note
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> 
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Another Dialect Notes 1909 note
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> The author notes that
> 
> "_p_ has become [voiced] in
> 
> _Ba[b]tis_,
> 
> etc."
> 
> 
> You'd be surprised, if you watched The Judges, how many SE/BE speakers today say
> 
> _la[b]top_.
> 
> 
> Before I caught on, I wondered how a ruined "lab top," presumably
> located in the college chem lab - hence, a problem for the school -
> could have become a civil case between two students.
> --
> -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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