Re: New Englishisms
From: | John Cowan <cowan@...> |
Date: | Monday, March 15, 1999, 15:37 |
Raymond A. Brown wrote:
> They used to rhyme in the so-called "Received Pronunciation" of southern
> Britain also, with the initial vowel being the long, slightly rounded low
> back vowel represented in IPA as a reversed lower case script 'a'. I don't
> know the Kirshenbaum ASCII IPA symbol for this.
Hence the famous _Pirates of Penzance_ scene. "Have you ever
known what it is to be an orphan?" "Often!" sets up the basic
misunderstanding, leading eventually to "Yes, yes, often, [meaning]
frequently, only once!"
> In my parents' generation the
> initial sound of 'often' was generally the _short_ /O/ sound of English
> 'got', 'not' etc (don't think it exists or is very common in the US);
It's used in New England (east of the Connecticut River) and very
notably in Canada (which is not part of the U.S., to be sure).
--
John Cowan http://www.ccil.org/~cowan cowan@ccil.org
You tollerday donsk? N. You tolkatiff scowegian? Nn.
You spigotty anglease? Nnn. You phonio saxo? Nnnn.
Clear all so! 'Tis a Jute.... (Finnegans Wake 16.5)