Re: Over the rivver and Throo the wuds

On Fri, 16 Oct 1998 00:02:28 -0500 Tom Wier <artabanos@...>
writes:
>Not exactly.  At least in my dialect, and everywhere I've heard it,
>it's
>always been /'h&ph&z@rd/, where the /h/ is not merely a marker of
>aspiration on the /p/, but is a full-fledged /h/.
With the stress on the first syllable?  I didn't expect that...

>I find the vowel breaking  (/&/ --> /E@/) there to be rather
>interesting;
>is that a normal phonological feature of the New York area where you
>live?
Yup.  Many words that other people pronounce with /&/ we pronounce here
with /E@/ , although i've never been satisfied with that
transcription...the sound always sounded as if it starts a little higher
than /E/.  I don't live out on the Island itself anymore - i live in
Brooklyn, where the /E@/ is slightly less common, so sometimes i find
myself saying "bad" as /b&d/ instead of /bE@d/, even though it sounds
strange to me like that.  Various other /&/ words that we use /E@/ for
are "grass", "fad", "can", "ram" "am" (although sometimes i say it /Em/),
"fast", "pail", "gas"...

>Also, I heard once that in the word "Long Island", most people from
>the
>area say /lONgail@nd/ rather than SE /lONail@nd/. I used to be tempted
>to think that that was a spelling pronunciation, but now with what you
>say,
>I am beginning to think otherwise.  Looks like it's a regular
>phonological
>rule there:  where certain segments come together, there must be some
>sort
>of epenthetic segment added in to provide for a good liaison. Very
>normal, as languages go.
Yup, it's /lONgail@nd/.  I had to go ask my brother to say it, because
i'm not that good at evaluating my own speech, especially with a word
that i don't use often - we tend to just say "(out on) the Island" when
referring to Nassau and Suffolk, without the obvious "Long".  Although
there's one Staten Islander that i know who uses "the Island" to refer to
Staten Island - very confusing when you're in Brooklyn or Queens, and the
two places are in the opposite directions!


-Stephen (Steg)
 "in nyu york voinen a sakh imigrantn fun a sakh lender. a sakh fun di
andere zainen kinder fun imigrantn."

___________________________________________________________________
You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail.
Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com
or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]