low back merger--austentacious

Tue Mar 16 14:49:53 UTC 2010

TZ seems to have both t/d merger and i/e merger. I hope these conditions do not cause any airplane-related deaths among his interlocutors.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

-----Original Message-----
From: Tom Zurinskas <truespel at HOTMAIL.COM>
Date:         Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:13:19
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject:      Re: [ADS-L] low back merger--austentacious

Seems to be a difference of opinion on pronouncing "Austin".  AWE-stin or AH-stin.  I assume it's said both ways there.  I assume the AH-stin is has the biggest trent.  Could it be from hispanic pronunciation?

Jay Leno said AHK-word for "awkward" last night.  His from Mass.  I would think he changed from awe to ah since moving to LA.

The "awe" phoneme isn't a biggie, so the effect isn't huge.  My data in truespel book 4, which counts phoneme appearances in text, shows that "awe" appears only 1/9 the number of times the most popular vowels do.

Still, if the awe-droppers have their way, the awe phoneme will dissappear from USA English.  I clicked on m-w.com and thefreedictionary.com and the pronunciatin of "awkward" for USA was AHK-word, although the written phonetics is the awe vowel.  In fact m-w.com even pronounces the word "awe" as ah, but at least thefreedictionary.com says it as "awe".  Both have the "awe" symbol in written phonetics for the word "awe".  That makes m-w.com less trustworthy in my opinion if they don't say the sound "awe" for the phonetic symbol "awe".

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

> Date: Sat, 13 Mar 2010 05:01:00 -0500
> From: cdoyle at UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: low back merger--austentacious
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> Subject: Re: low back merger--austentacious
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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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> >> ox.
> >>
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