9.683, Disc: Recent Change in English

[LINGUIST Network]

LINGUIST List:  Vol-9-683. Sun May 10 1998. ISSN: 1068-4875.

Subject: 9.683, Disc: Recent Change in English

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1)
Date:  Sat, 09 May 1998 21:53:37 -0400 (EDT)
From:  Paul Johnston <JOHNSTONP at wmich.edu>
Subject:  Re: 9.680, Disc: Recent changes in English

2)
Date:  Sun, 10 May 1998 15:55:23 +0100 (BST)
From:  "Larry Trask" <larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk>
Subject:  Re: 9.680, Disc: Recent changes in English

3)
Date:  Sun, 10 May 1998 13:08:05 -0400
From:  lexes at mindspring.com
Subject:  Re: 9.680, Disc: Recent changes in English

-------------------------------- Message 1 -------------------------------

Date:  Sat, 09 May 1998 21:53:37 -0400 (EDT)
From:  Paul Johnston <JOHNSTONP at wmich.edu>
Subject:  Re: 9.680, Disc: Recent changes in English

To Marc Picard:
		There are a number of American dialects that raise
/Eg/ to /eg/ too--I think a lot of localized Western Michigan
varieties do, for one, and MANY in the Upper South, where there might
be diphthongization to /Eig/ for both EGG and VAGUE.
					Paul Johnston
					Western Michigan U.


-------------------------------- Message 2 -------------------------------

Date:  Sun, 10 May 1998 15:55:23 +0100 (BST)
From:  "Larry Trask" <larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk>
Subject:  Re: 9.680, Disc: Recent changes in English


Marc Picard writes, on `egg':

> I don't think this is the proper representation of this
> pronunciation. It's more like "ague" and "bague". When I have my
> students transcribe words like these, I always get a few that write
> /e:g/ for /Eg/, and so on. I've never heard Americans do this, and
> I've never been able to figure out exactly where in Canada this
> pronunciation is common.

I can testify that, in the western New York State accent I grew up
with, we pronounce `egg' and `leg' with the vowel of `day'.  Just
these two: other words, like `beg' and `dreg', have the vowel of
`bed'.  Of course, we're far enough north to share one or two
typically Canadian features -- notably a version of Canadian Raising
-  but we do not have the `cot'/`caught' merger, which seems to be
universal in Canada.

Larry Trask
COGS
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk


-------------------------------- Message 3 -------------------------------

Date:  Sun, 10 May 1998 13:08:05 -0400
From:  lexes at mindspring.com
Subject:  Re: 9.680, Disc: Recent changes in English

Am I alone in observing a rapid decline in the use of the indefinite
article, *an*, among educated native speakers of North American
English?

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