Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: USAGE: Weird dialectal stuff

From:Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...>
Date:Wednesday, January 12, 2000, 0:48
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. -- 21 Watikala'f Wakabi'f watya'nivaf plal 272 http://members.tripod.com/~Nik_Taylor/Conlang/W.html http://members.tripod.com/~Nik_Taylor/Books.html ICQ: 18656696 AIM Screen-Name: NikTailor