LL-L "Phonology" 2003.09.01 (10) [E]

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From: Críostóir Ó Ciardha <paada_please at yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L "Morphology" 2003.09.01 (03) [E]

A chairde,

Uilleam Óg Mhic Sheumais and Dan Prohaska wrote
(respectively):

a) "If I recall correctly, isn't "hit" the 3rd person
neuter singular pronoun in Old English?"

b) "Yes, it is. Interesting it survived. I thought it
had lost its initial <h-> long before the new world
was colonised by English speakers."

Let's not forget that incongruous aspiration is a
facet of at least one variant in Nottingham that I am
aware of. Here, 'an egg' becomes 'a hegg' but 'a
horse' becomes 'an orse', 'an apple':'a happle' but 'a
hot potato':'an ot potato' and so on. General
Nottingham English never deploys 'a hegg' for 'an egg'
and so on.

Interestingly, there is the possibility that the
'hegg' variant became widespread as a social marker in
certain working class areas but not in others.

The variant's origin can in all probability be found
in one of the many (now probably extinct) rural
dialects spoken in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and
Leicestershire before the Industrial Revolution. It
would have been taken to towns such Nottingham, Derby
and Long Eaton by rural immigrants, primarily those
working on the canals or in the lace mills. It may be
that these variants never lost the original Old
English <-h>, transferring it later on to a sociolect.

Criostóir.

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From: Ben J. Bloomgren <godsquad at cox.net>
Subject: LL-L "Phonology" 2003.09.01 (06) [E]

I did *not* feel in the majority with my second question.  I pronounce
> words like "human" or "huge" with a plain y, i.e. "yoo-man" "yooj" etc.
> In my small sample about 5 people agreed with my pronunciation, but most
> American still seem to pronounce "hy".  The Random House dictionary has
> a pronunciation note at the entry from "human": "Pronunciations of words
> like "human," "huge" with the initial h deleted, while sometimes
> criticized, are heard from speakers at all social and educational
> levels, including professors, lawyers, and other public speakers."
>
> Since I drop h in front of both semi-vowels, I see a certain logic but
> usage in the US seems to be that hw is declining, while hy still is
> predominant.
I seem to hear Yuge instead of huge in speakers from the eastern United
States. I live in Arizona, and I don't drop off that h myself. I hear it
most when, say, a talk show host has a lawyer or a broadcaster from the
eastern seaboard as a guest. We don't drop it off out here, at least where I
have been.
As others have already noted, people do not even hear the
> difference unless their attention is drawn to it.
I tend to disagree. When I hear it, it is very obvious. It is a regional
difference in my opinion.
Ben

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