Re: CHAT YAEPT :Re: Phonological musings (was: Announcement: New auxlang "Choton")

From:    Roger Mills <rfmilly@...>
> Late at night, I could pick up programs from San Antonio,
> of all places-- "From the Starlight Roof of the XXX Hotel, on the corner of
> Main and Travis in downtown S.A." and the like (it was wonderfully exotic,
> even if it was just a dance band...)-- and those announcers had the same
> standard accent, certainly not Texan.
The very existence of a Texan dialect can be disputed.  There is a
major dialect isogloss that runs roughly northeast to southwest about
100 miles east of Dallas all the way, ultimately, to Laredo on the
Mexican border, paralleling the Gulf Coast.  The western side of this
isogloss was settled primarily by people from Missouri and Tennesse,
along with a number of midwestern states, while the eastern side was
settled primarily from the Deep South.  So, it's quite possible that
the speakers you heard spoke this way because their ancestors were,
in fact, Midwesterners.  Houstonians sound noticeably more 'Southern':

<http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/atlas_texas/traditional_dialect_english.jpg>

 =========================================================================
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