Re: CHAT: (no subject)

On Fri, 26 Dec 2003, Andreas Johansson wrote:
> Lately, I've seen alot of people misspelling the past tense and
> passive participle ending _-ed_ as **_-et_.   Now, I'm wondering
> a) if this really is a phenomenon on the rise, or if I've just
> for no known reason only suddenly have begun noticing it, and b)
> if it is representative of some dialect merging /d/ and /t/
> finally - intervocalic merger of them is common enough, of course.
I can't say that I've ever seen this phenomenon written down,
but I do think I recall occasions when I've heard people
hypercorrect in spoken contexts.  Also, it may be an affective
thing, much as when my friend's wife deaspirates her word-
initial stop consonants to sound cute and to get her way. This
kind of -et pronunciation in affective usage would be to sound
haughty or pretentious, in a mocking sort of way.

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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