Re: Probability of Article Replacement?

On Wednesday 26 February 2003 11:21 am, Andrew Smith wrote:
> >I think one may be discarded by a process of elision.  'the' is doing this
> >in some english dialects, especially after a glottal stop.  It usually
> >still is there, as a very weak [@]. ie. 'at the pool' [&?@ puM/].
>
> At the risk of making this yet another English dialect discussion, 'the' is
> definitely discarded in the North of England (Lancashire/Yorkshire) after a
> glottal stop. As far as I can see, the first step is that 'the' is realised
> as [?] itself:
>
> 'in the car' [In?k_hA:]
>
> but you still get a distinction between this and:
>
> 'in a car' [In@k_hA:]
>
> And then if the previous word also ends in a glottal stop, you get elision:
>
> 'at the pool' [@?p_huL\]
> 'at a pool' [@?@p_huL\]
>
> It's a short step from there to re-analysing [@?p_huL\] without an article
> at all.
>
> Andrew Smith

He's right there.  I got confused by my(Yorkshire) grandfather saying
[In?l&v], 'in the lav' or 'in the toilet.  Which, in the UK, means 'in the
bathroom', before any of you crazy americans get the wrong idea ;-)

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