LL-L "Phonology' 2007.02.19 (01) [E]

[Lowlands-L List]

L O W L A N D S - L - 19 February 2007 - Volume 01

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From: Dirk Mahling <dmahling at acm.org>
Subject: LL-L "Phonology' 2007.02.18 (02) [E]

 Hi,

I live in the haht of Massachusetts and I can asshua you that the
non-rhothic dialect is alive and well.
When you ask the folks around hee-ah: "whe-a ah the kha-kees" some people
look a they-ah pants and oth-ahs a they-ah key-chains.
Some politicians, like Romney, may speak differently, but then again, he is
from Michigan.

Dirk Mahling,

or rathah - Dee-akh

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From: Ed Alexander <edsells at cogeco.ca>
Subject: LL-L "Phonology' 2007.02.18 (02) [E]

At 02:35 PM 02/18/07 -0800, you wrote:

From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Phonology

As many of you are aware, many English dialects of Massachusetts are
"non-rhotic." In this they are like English dialects of Australia, New
Zealand and Southern England, also of other parts of the US east coast and
southeast, and also like most Low Saxon dialects. "Non-rhotic" means that a
syllable-final /r/ is "deleted" or "dropped." Technically speaking, it
becomes a vowel and in many cases is assimilated to the preceding vowel,
resulting in a long vowel.


Actually, in all of New England this "non-rhotic" tendency applies not only
to the final syllable, but to all syllables, as far as I have experienced
it.  For example, Northeastern University is something like "Nawtheastun
Univahsity".  Where I come from in the Midwest, it was considered an
aberration of speech to be avoided, as much as the "southern drawl".  (This
despite the fact that Chicago represents a subset of this dialect).  We only
spoke General American, and that's pretty much all I heard on the North
Shore.  I had a geometry teacher who used to say "Ameriker" and we all
thought there was something wrong with him.  I think this was worse than
saying "yawl", which I guess had a little class because of Gone With the
Wind.  However, John Kennedy made up for that, and then we had All In the
Family, and now Everybody Loves Raymond (where at least Raymond speaks the
dialect), This Old House, and a number of other TV shows, so it's not looked
down upon so much anymore.

However, it is pretty clear that these regional dialects are much harder to
find, and you really have to go up in the mountains of Vahmont and New
Hampshuh to find it in its purer forms, which I guess applies in Tennessee
as well, yawl.

Ron, you know that my theory (not mine alone, mind you) is that these
dialects are from East Anglia, which, the theory goes, was invaded and
settled by Saxons, as opposed to the stronger influence of the Franks in
Kent and westward.

There are other similarities, notably in the pronunciation of the vowels,
which mark all of these various dialects around the world, particularly in
the a and o.  Eg standard "cot" sounds like "caught" and standard "cart"
sounds like "cot", lark is lock, lock is lawk, etc.

Now to the "discovery." Last week I listened to two speeches given by men
from Massachusetts, and I had plenty of time and material to "analyze" their
speech patterns. As everywhere in North America, non-rhotic Massachusetts
dialects are now becoming rhotic. Both speakers pronounced syllable-final
/-r/, one of them consistently and the other close to consistently (leading
me to believe that this was not his native phonology). Both of the vocalic
variants shown above where represented, making one of them share the /ar/
sequence with many Irish English dialects.


Trust me, they learn from experience about the r's, and change it
consciously so as not to stand out.  I try as quickly as possible to switch
my Canadian characteristics when I visit the States for the same reason -
who likes to stand out and be funny sounding to others.

 I predict that the next and final step will be the loss of different vowel
realizations, and this in a matter of one or two more generations. In other
words, I believe that the phenomenon of [aːɻ] ~ [æːɻ] ([a:r\`] ~ [&:r\`]) in
Massachusetts English is a transitional one.

I would be interested in hearing other people's views on this.


Well, they've been "disappearing" for a very long time.  There are also some
regional tendencies which tend to offset and counteract the levelling
process, too.  And as I mentioned above, the media now tend to honour
regional dialects more than in the past, so I guess only time will tell.

Ed Alexander, hoping youse can understand my Canajan di-lect all right.

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Phonology

Thanks for the additional information, guys.

I didn't say that the rule applies only in the final syllable, Ed.
"Syllable-finally" means "at the end of every syllable" (technically
speaking "in every coda").

I knew that New England dialects are non-rhotic outside Massachusetts as
well, but I only addressed the two person's speech that I had "studied," and
I know from experience that, whenever you make a blanket statement like "New
England dialects ...," someone inevitably comes out of the woodwork saying
that it is an over-generalization.

I thought this required clarification.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
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