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From: rdd@usa1.com (Aaron J. Dinkin)
Subject: Re: Chain Shift (was Tendency of Inflections to Disappear)
Message-ID: <rdd-0608960947340001@dmn1-67.usa1.com>
Date: Tue, 06 Aug 1996 09:47:34 -0500
References: <4suk93$pob@carrera.intergate.bc.ca> <rdd-2607961343260001@dmn1-39.usa1.com> <31FE66AD.7824@qualcomm.com> <rte-3107961047100001@135.25.40.118> <4u4p0j$mef@shellx.best.com> <rte-0508961326490001@135.25.40.118>
Lines: 57

In article <rte-0508961326490001@135.25.40.118>, rte@elmo.lz.att.com
(Ralph T. Edwards) wrote:

> In article <4u4p0j$mef@shellx.best.com>, Joe Keane <jgk@jgk.org> wrote:
> 
> 
> > In article <rte-3107961047100001@135.25.40.118>
> > Ralph T. Edwards <rte@elmo.lz.att.com> writes:
> > >So Aaron, where are your parents and neighbors from?  How many are
> > >transplants from the NYC area?

It's possible to trace my lineage back five generations without leaving
suburban Boston. Before that (or later, with different sets of ancestors)
you have to go to Lithuania or Russia or somewhere.

> > It's not New York, i don't think.  I think that it's a decent test for
> > New England, rhotic or not.  New York is probably borderline for this.
> > 
> 
> Oh, so my respondents are confused about their pronunciation? :-)
> I think you can make a case that NYC is part of New England phonologically.

I don't think so, being part of New England myself; New Yorkers tend to
sound quite different. However, I'm sure you could make a case that
Connecticut is part of NYC phonologically (and cultuarlly and economically
and eveything but politically). _A Biography of the English Language_, by
C. M. Millward, lists Eastern New England and New York City as two
separate dialects.

> > Some similar vowel+`r' test words are `carry', `ferry', and `horrid'.
> > New Englanders will of course pronounce the vowels correctly, while
> > others tend to smash up vowels before `r', pronouncing these words,
> > amusingly enough, `care-ree', `fair-ree', and `whore-rid'.
> > 
> > --
> > Joe Keane, amateur linguist
> 
> Minus ten points for using "correctly" in sci.lang without a smiley.

Hey, he did say "amateur". Go easy on him. (And I'm in alt.usage.english,
where some of the denizens consider smileys indicative of hopeless
inarticulateness and at least one mysteriously never even sees them.)

> Mary, merry, and merry are indeed smashed together, as you put it.
> But /hOrId/ rather than /HArId/ is just a different pronunciation, as many
> who say /hO-/ also say /bAro/ for borrow.

That's bizarre; how did it happen?

> You'll be hArrified to know that /hO-/ comes first in my AE dict. and is
> the only pronunciation in a BE dict.

Well, I'm horrified, but then I'm also horrified when a dictionary says
that "paw" and "lore" have the same vowel.

-Aaron J. Dinkin
Dr. Whom

