Re: USAGE: indefinite "a" before vowel-initial words

From:    David Peterson <ThatBlueCat@...>
> Thomas wrote:
> <<So, it seems to be something more than my crazy "language
> module" acting up again.=A0 Maybe a sound change in progress?>>
>
> Lots of young people (meaning people my age) do it.   It's not so much a
> sound change, as a reanalysis of all vowel initial forms.
That may well be, though see my other post on nasalized vowels.

> Another biproduct is the neutralization of "the".   In my speech, I have
> [D@] or [D] before consonants, and [Dij] before vowels (the glide
> smoothing the transition).   People who have [@] everywhere, though,
> tend to have [D@] everywhere, also, and for the same reason.
I would be one of those, it appears...

> Some other things I've noticed:
> -/nt/ > [4~] (or [n]), so that "sentence" sounds like "sennence", and=20
> "renting" sounds like "renning" (this one *really* grates on my nerves.
> But, hey, it's sound change: What can you do?)
This is a genuine sound change, and I would be surprised if any
North American did not have it.

> -/O/ > [A] / _syl syl (both unstressed), so "Florida" sounds like
> "Flahrida" (ick!)
(1) I have precisely the opposite reflex of /O/;  the contrast
between /O/ and /o/ is neutralized to [o] before /r/.  (Same
with the contrast of /&/ and /E/ before /r/:  --> [E].)
(2) I think in many parts of the country this is the traditional,
not the innovatory dialect.  Tbus it might have more to do with
dialect features spreading rather than sound-change per se.

> -/IN/ > [in] for the "-ing" suffix (I've got this) (backformation from
> /-In/ I think)
Definitely don't have this one.

> -Back vowels deround
This too may have something more to do with dialect-spreading
than with sound innovation per se.  Unrounded back vowels are common
throughout the South, and have been carried Westwards as other
Southernisms have.

 =========================================================================
Thomas Wier	       "I find it useful to meet my subjects personally,
Dept. of Linguistics    because our secret police don't get it right
University of Chicago   half the time." -- octogenarian Sheikh Zayed of
1010 E. 59th Street     Abu Dhabi, to a French reporter.
Chicago, IL 60637