Raleigh, N.C. -- awesome or aw-dropping?

[Laurence Horn]

On Feb 13, 2014, at 8:30 AM, Paul Johnston wrote:

> No.  I am a [po at li], so there's no low-vowel merger there.  Rawley is [ro at li].  I have the usual NYC area pattern.
>
> Paul(ie)

Hunh.  I think of my NYC pattern as having an open o for that vowel rather than a [o@], although I wouldn't be surprised to learn that there is an off-glide.  We probably have the same vowel there and just different religious beliefs about what it really is.  And yours is probably correct.

LH

> On Feb 13, 2014, at 8:14 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>> Subject:      Re: Raleigh, N.C. -- awesome or aw-dropping?
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> On Feb 13, 2014, at 1:11 AM, Paul Johnston wrote:
>>
>>> Script a for me, even with Sir Walter.
>>
>> But I assume these wouldn't be homophonous with "Rawley" or rhyme with Jane Pauley (or a putative self-diminutive Paulie) for you, right?
>>
>> LH
>>
>>> On Feb 12, 2014, at 10:46 PM, "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: Raleigh, N.C. -- awesome or aw-dropping?
>>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>
>>>> At 2/12/2014 08:47 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>>>>> I suspect I've gone back and forth on Raleigh (North Carolina, Sir
>>>>> Walter, cigarettes, whatever), between Rollie (which I pronounce
>>>>> with an [a], or really script a, vowel as in the first name of the
>>>>> ex-A's/Brewers' relief pitcher Fingers) and Rawley.  I think I might
>>>>> be more likely to use the open-o for Sir Walter Raleigh because of
>>>>> the rounding in his first name, more so than in the snow- and
>>>>> ice-bound N.C. city.   It's hard for me to be sure exactly how I
>>>>> tend to pronounce these unselfconsciously, though. (
>>>>
>>>> I find that I react (recoil?) when I *hear* a pronunciation that's
>>>> not mine, but like LH am unsure about my own pronunciation when I
>>>> deliberately think about it or speak it out.  I've begun to trust my
>>>> first reaction and discount my experiments.
>>>>
>>>> Joel
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> (No danger of "awe"-extinction for me, though--I would never merge
>>>>> the pronunciation of "Cawley" (as in the late Jim McCawley) and
>>>>> "collie", for example.)
>>>>>
>>>>> LH
>>>>>
>>>>> On Feb 12, 2014, at 7:10 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Raleigh, North Carolina, is much in the news this moment for its
>>>>>> proximity to North Carolinians of stupidity (to paraphrase its
>>>>>> governor).  I hear announcers saying "Rollie" (almost "Rah-lee", but
>>>>>> not quite?).  I learned "Raw-lee".  Is that because I'm an effete
>>>>>> (North-)* Easterner?  Or did I learn it from hearing pre-modern announcers?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> * South-Easterners' methods may differ.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Joel
>>>>>>
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