Re: [wEr\ Ar\ ju: fr6m] ?

On Thursday 08 November 2001 00:20, Almaran Dungeonmaster wrote:

> Oh, I do... but then my mom(who teaches Dutch) threatens to throw
> me out if I don't speak more civilized than that.
> My little brother's name is "Gijs", which should be pronounced
> /xEis/, but which I tend to pronounce /xa:is/. Then, it almost
> sounds like "gajes" /'xa:j@s/, meaning "rifraf".
My daughters do that. I hate it and keep making fun of them, "het is
van maaaaj!", but I realized it was a true vowel shift when it dawned
on me that the pronunciation of Danish changed in the same way in
less than 50 years.

You're probably older than they are (6 and 7) but younger than I am
(43); I'm curious where the vowel change starts. The girls probably
get it from their teachers, mostly women in their late twenties. They
sure don't get it from us (we say [Ej] consistently) or from
television (they don't watch enough to even notice).

   Irina

--
irina@valdyas.org                        http://www.valdyas.org/irina
---------------------------------------------------------------------
By my troth, we that have good wits have much to answer for. We shall
be flouting; we cannot hold.
                              - William Shakespeare, _As You Like It_