low back merger--austentacious

[Leslie Decker]

Not just *now*--has been for years.  My great-grandmother, who was born just
north of Austin and died in 2002 at the age of 97, always pronounced it that
way.  There's been no change in that,at least in the last 100 years.  Anyone
who says Aw-stin marks themselves as from the Northeast or another country.
Cot and caught sound the same to us--and we have absolutely NO PROBLEMS
communicating with each other.  It's no more difficult to distinguish in
context than 'to', 'too', and 'two', or 'their', 'there', and 'they're.'
Hell, 'pen' and 'pin' cause more problems, but real country folk around here
will just say 'inkpen' or 'stickpen' to distinguish if necessary.

Changes that HAVE happened include the loss of the glide in words such as
'tune' and 'new'.  My dad's generation is probably the last to have it.
He--a farmer from just north of Austin--has the glide.  My mother, a
city-girl Austin native, does not, though both of her parents did.

Leslie (German teacher, lurker with a linguistics degree, and central Texas
native)


On Fri, Mar 12, 2010 at 9:13 PM, Tom Zurinskas <truespel at hotmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Tom Zurinskas <truespel at HOTMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: low back merger--austentacious
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> So "Austin" is pronounced AH-stin now by locals?
>
> Tom Zurinskas=2C USA - CT20=2C TN3=2C NJ33=2C FL7+=20
> see truespel.com phonetic spelling
>
>
> =20
>  >=20
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------=
> ------
> > Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster: Leslie Decker <leslie at FAMILYDECKER.ORG>
> > Subject: Re: low back merger--austentacious
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> ------
> >=20
> > I live in Austin=2C TX=2C and a normal play on words here is to call
> > something Austintatious. Of course=2C the local dialect here has the
> > low-back merger.
> >=20
> > Leslie Decker
> >=20
> > On Friday=2C March 12=2C 2010=2C Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> ---------------=
> --------
> > > Sender: =C2 =C2 =C2 American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > Poster: =C2 =C2 =C2 "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> > > Subject: =C2 =C2 =C2 Re: low back merger--austentacious
> > >
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------=
> --------
> > >
> > > At 3/12/2010 11:11 AM=2C Herb Stahlke wrote:
> > >>CNN had a story this morning=2C which I haven't been able to find on
> > >>their site=2C on the question of whether spellcheck is making kids into
> > >>worse spellers. =C2 One of the misspellings they showed was
> > >>"austentatious." =C2 I was in a noise room when I saw the story=2C so I
> > >>didn't see the location. =C2 The teenage boy behind the misspelling at
> > >>least had a perceptual contrast=2C if not also a productive one.
> > >
> > > Perhaps he's merely into the (long) 18th century -- its email list is
> > > Austentatious.
> > >
> > > Joel
> > >
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> > >
> >=20
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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