dialect of Elena Kagan

[Tom Zurinskas]

I'm old now and I've lived near NYC (Conn and NJ and would you believe FL) so I've got better than average experience hearing NYC accent.  I've dealt with NYC air traffic controllers and usually there's some nuance in their speech that will locate them to NYC.  But with Elena, I don't hear a clue.  (One linguist from NYC gave a talk on speech influences regarding ATC work stress.  She said she has lost her NYC accent.  I had to smile - it was still there)

I once challenged this group to come up with a sentence or two filled with words that would locate the speaker to a region.  I gave it a try.  I'll see if I can locate it.

PS.  DOn't incourage people to delete threads they are respeonding to.  They are sometimes important  When not, easy enough to ignore.

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




>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: victor steinbok
> Subject: Re: dialect of Elena Kagan
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Tom, I completely agree with your first point. But have you considered
> the possibility that the limiting factor is your experience and not
> Kagan's accent?
>
> VS-)
>
> On Wed, May 12, 2010 at 9:28 PM, Tom Zurinskas wrote:
>>
>> Knowing Elena is from NYC and then saying you hear the dialect isn't quite =
>> as powerful as not knowing beforehand. =20
>>
>> =20
>>
>> I listened again and find nothing in my experience I can pin point to locat=
>> e Elena at NYC. A unique pronunciation of hers is for "dean" and "mean" to=
>> be two syllable words=2C ~dee'en DEE-en and ~mee'en MEE-en. I haven't hea=
>> rd that one before.
>>
>> Tom Zurinskas=2C USA - CT20=2C TN3=2C NJ33=2C FL7+=20
>> see truespel.com phonetic spelling
>>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
_________________________________________________________________
Hotmail is redefining busy with tools for the New Busy. Get more from your inbox.
http://www.windowslive.com/campaign/thenewbusy?ocid=PID28326::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:WM_HMP:042010_2

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