Re: USAGE: Weird dialectal stuff

Melissa Phong wrote:
> No, I say I use to. Use and to remain separate words and the "to" is not
> pronounced "ta."
Interesting.

> In general (around here), it seems to me people
> turn "d" after "s" into "t."  Blessed is blest, etc.
Well, that's in all English dialects, the suffix -ed is pronounced /t/
after voiceless consonants.

> So, I generally drop the "d" in "used to." If I want to emphasize it
> though, sometimes I voice the "s" (z), aspirate (is that right? add a puff
> of air) the d and pause for a sec before I say "to."
As well as devoicing the /z/, "use" as a verb is, at least in my
dialect, /juz/.  Do you not say that when saying "I used (/juzd/) the
elevator"?

Very interesting usage.  Where are you from again?

> P.S. to whomever asked: "Would of" etc. is also a U.S. thing. I'm from the
> U.S.
And it's hardly surprising, "of" and -'ve are pronounced exactly the
same, /@(v)/.  Presumably, for whatever reason, people no longer
associate "would've" with "would have" and consider it a single word,
/wUd@(v)/, so when they have to write it, they're not sure about the
spelling.

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