Terlet

[Jonathan Lighter]

Like it matters, my grandfather's speech was less rhotic than mine, but
somewhat more rhotic than Leo Gorcey's.

JL

On Tue, Mar 23, 2010 at 11:22 AM, Mark Mandel <thnidu at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Mark Mandel <thnidu at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Terlet
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I would venture a step further and guess that the dialect *merges* /oI/ and
> /@r/ into something that is acoustically between them. When a non-merging
> speaker hears it, their brain (right on, Ron!) says "Huh! That's not {oI /
> @r}! It sounds more like {@r / oI}. I'll label it as that."
>
> m a m
>
>
> On Tue, Mar 23, 2010 at 8:39 AM, <ronbutters at aol.com> wrote:
>
> > Yes, Joel's question is a sensible one and is basically the same one I
> have
> > been asking about the "hypercorrection" scenario. It seems more probable
> to
> > me that there is what Jonathan termed "lightly articulated" r-coloring
> that
> > is variably present all along. The key factor is in the ears of the
> > stereotyping outsider-hearers, not the mouths of the dialect speakers.
> >  (Of course, our dialects do not tell us to say anything, our brains do.)
> > Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> > Date:         Mon, 22 Mar 2010 14:28:27
> > To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Subject:      Re: [ADS-L] Terlet
> >
> > I think I was unclear.  If someone's dialect told him instead of
> > "toylet" to say "terlit" *and* he was a-rhotic, what would he say
> > instead?  It was half a joke and half a question if there was any
> > such pronuciation.
> >
> > Joel
> >
>
>  ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org