Re: New Englishisms

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)