Orthographic reform as a national priority, an ADS responsibility

[Joel S. Berson]

At 10/15/2012 11:26 AM, Michael Newman wrote:
>What grammatical items do you have in mind. I couldn't find too much
>that distinguishes NYCE from other varieties.

My grammatical item was your "Also, we got the most marvelous
collection of vowels."  I don't know whether to take that as  NYCE
(or is it LIE? as in Queens, LI?) -ism or a casual typing elision.

And I was just joshing there.  (Not about vowels, though.)

Joel

>Michael Newman
>Associate Professor of Linguistics
>Queens College/CUNY
>michael.newman at qc.cuny.edu
>
>
>
>On Oct 14, 2012, at 10:16 AM, "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET> wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> > Subject:      Re: Orthographic reform as a national priority, an ADS
> >              responsibility
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > At 10/14/2012 11:07 AM, Michael Newman wrote:
> >> I suggest that New York City English (classic White variety as
> >> studied by Labov in the 1960s) be used. Since the fact is that there
> >> will be no spelling reform, I think we should pick the dialect least
> >> likely to be chosen for it just to be consistent with unlikeliness
> >> of the whole enterprise. Also, we got the most marvelous
> collection of vowels.
> >
> > And also we got the most marvelous collection of grammar!    :-)
> >
> > But I fully support this movement -- it will make my collection of
> > vowels less pretentious.
> >
> > Joel
> >
> >> We could use Labov's variable system to mark them, which I know from
> >> experience will drive phonologists crazy.

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