[Ads-l] "Drop" becoming confusing

[Will Salmon]

> The term, as you interpret it, presupposes that the yod pronunciation is 
> the older one. Is this really the case?
> 
> Sali.

Hmm. I guess it depends on whether there's actually a yod being dropped or if what's really going on is a merger of /ju/ and /u/ in specific phonological contexts, as has been claimed. In either case, in western Canada it's perceived as belonging to older speakers and more careful speech.

It was interesting to me though that some of the students understood 'dropping' one way, and others did so in another way.
Will


> 
>> On 12/15/2017 3:19 PM, Will Salmon wrote:
>> When I was teaching sociolinguistics in Vancouver a few years ago, I assigned a project in which students were to investigate yod-dropping in the community in words like tune/tyune, news/nyews, etc.
>> 
>> Some of the students interpreted the assignment so that "yod-dropping" meant dropping yod into the various words, resulting in tyune/nyews etc., rather than dropping yod out of them.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>> On Dec 15, 2017, at 2:43 PM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>>> 
>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> Poster:       Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM>
>>> Subject:      "Drop" becoming confusing
>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> 
>>> Headline I saw today:
>>> 
>>> L-ong time coming: Transit agencies drop plan for commuters during L-train
>>> closure
>>> https://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/40/51/dtg-l-train-plans-update-2017-12-22-bk.html
>>> 
>>> When I first saw the headline, I assumed it meant that the plan was being
>>> thrown away. It was only when I read the entire article that I learned the
>>> plan was just announced.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> DanG
>>> 
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> 
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