low back merger--austentacious

[Charles Doyle]

I grew up 100 miles east of Austin, and I spent all my undergraduate and grad-school years in Austin (1961-68). I have always had DIFFERENT initial vowels in "Austin" and "ostentatious"!

"Austin" (like "Boston" and "lost") has the "open o" ("awe"); "ostentatious" has [a] ("ah").

--Charlie



---- Original message ----
>Date: Sat, 13 Mar 2010 01:53:24 -0600
>From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> (on behalf of Leslie Decker <leslie at FAMILYDECKER.ORG>)
>
>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
>>
>>                                         =20
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