YAEPT (was Re: French)

Roger Mills writes:
>
> The only real free variation in AmEngl. I can
> think if is "economic(s), economical" with initial
> [i] or [E], often in the same discourse. Other
> alternants, like "either" ['iDr=] ~ ['aiDr=] or
> "tomato" [t@'meyto ~ t@'mAto] seem to be regional,
> maybe even class features.

When I was a teenager around 1970, I noticed that
everyone here in southeastern Michigan pronounced
"either" as ['iDr=] if they were younger than 30,
but as ['aiDr=] if they were older than that.

What really annoyed me (although it didn't seem to
matter to my classmates) was that our teachers were
always correcting us to pronounce it as ['aiDr=].

Now that I'm 54, I still pronounce it ['iDr=], but
all my former classmates who still live here have
switched to ['aiDr=]. In fact, I can't remember
the last time I heard someone else say ['iDr=].
But I don't know any teenagers around here. I
wonder how they say it.

 --Ph. D.

Replies