Re: New Englishisms

Brian Betty wrote:

> Well! While we're on the topic of regionalisms, let me make some
> observations about New English speech (New Englanders ... )
>
> 1. clip everything. I say ev'ry, ev'rything, p'sition (not position, but
> pzishin).
I would think that these are pretty common, actually.  I myself often say
"except" as [ksEpt], "potatos" [pteid@z].

> This often leads to a weird vowel harmony thingie when you get
> this really long word with all the vowels collapsed /klaepst/ to /i/ or
> /@/. Prescription /pr@skripshn/. Elimination /ilimineyshn/. Christmas
> /krismis/. Et cetera.
> 2. Intervocalic -d-, -t- become flaps. Sweater sounds like /swerR/; even
> 'sudden' is almost /sar-n/. My favorite, though, is when I actually make a
> dental stop into a rolled r: this happens most often with: "What are you
> doing?" > /'(h)warryu 'du:ing?/. Really. I get quite a roll into it without
> even noticing it.
That's interesting that you have that voiceless /w/ there.  Is it that common
up there?

> 3. talk really, really fast, so that when you travel out of New England
> people say "What? What? What?" all the time. Usually followed by, "Slow
> down, say it again."
> 4. I say /o:fn/ (o: is aw in law).
Yeah, I would think so.  In my dialect, and I would suppose most
Western dialects, that's become /A/ or even /a/.  (For me, the former)

> 5. I claim to recognise the audible difference between Mary, marry, and
> merry, which to my Oregonian roommate is all /meri:/ (here r = American r)
> and to me is /maeri:/, /mae:ri:/ and /meri:/, respectively.
Interesting.  I think some Southern dialects have an /E:/ in there somewhere
(don't know where, though, since I find it hard to hear the difference myself).

> 6. many New Englanders don't have ahs (rs), as is probably familiar to many
> people on this list. Others, like myself, overcompensate and have rs coiled
> up like a little ball of rubber bands. Uberrhotic, I reckon.
I think a lot of times I have only very slightly retroflexed vowels there, but
I don't think I ever actually slip into an entirely nonretroflexed speech style...

> 7. Also, ts are frequently replaced by glottal stops, especially in
> syllable-final position: hi' for hit. si' for sit.
Yep -- I have that too (but, I suspect my dialect's not the Standard
around the state here)

> The oddest thing is that people in New England also say y'all. That might
> be because of the influence of the universities ... But y'allses is
> definitely out.
Well, it does exist in England (or did, at any rate).  Coulda come from
there. Or perhaps from the exodus of blacks after the Civil War?
Dunno.  What kind of social status does it have?  Is it stigmatized?
(Also, I've only heard _y'all'ses_ once; it so shocked me, that I couldn't
forget it).

=======================================================
Tom Wier <artabanos@...>
ICQ#: 4315704   AIM: Deuterotom
Website: <http://www.angelfire.com/tx/eclectorium/>
"Cogito ergo sum, sed credo ergo ero."

There's nothing particularly wrong with the
proletariat. It's the hamburgers of the
proletariat that I have a problem with. - Alfred Wallace
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