anythink

[Max Wheeler]

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Benji Wald writes:
 
> My guess is that the -ink variant was nascent in London and perhaps allied
> Southern dialects of English in the late 18th to early 20th c, but aborted
> (or remains dormant) in Southern England, and perhaps remains somwhat rare
> in Australia (apart from "somethink", "nothink" and "anythink"), but has
> taken off in urban NZ for sociolinguistic reasons, and come to the point
> where it is very prominent and noticeable, a relatively advanced stage of
> development for a sound change.  A question back to Lyle is whether or not
> this pronunciation has become so common and salient that it is subject to
> overt comment among NZ speakers (i.e., non-linguists).    -- Benji
 
 
Let it not be said that this pronunciation is dormant or aborted in SE
England. Where I grew up (Pinner, Middlesex, 1950s), it was very much part of
the casual style of schoolchildren, perhaps LMC given the social
characteristics of the neighbourhood. I would say it was common even among
those who did not display the <th>-/f/ merger, and a fortiori among those who
did. But my perception is that it is stereotypical of London-influenced
pronunciations in SE England up to the present. I wonder if it may be less
common among adults than among children or teenagers?
 
Max Wheeler
 
___________________________________________________________________________
 
Max W. Wheeler <maxw at cogs.susx.ac.uk>
School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences
University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QH, UK
Tel: +44 (0)1273 678975; fax: +44 (0)1273 671320
___________________________________________________________________________