Re: PA dialect (was: Re: i'm reforming one of my conlangs)

On Fri, Dec 12, 2008 at 4:00 PM, Carl Banks <conlang@...> wrote:

> > OK, I give up  - what is the spelling "hause" meant to convey?  It sure
> > looks like it would be pronounced the same as the standard AmE (/h&Us/
> or so).
>
> /has/, rhymes with sauce.

Interesting.  I've encountered that as an alternate for "horse", but not
"house".


> I am not the biggest expert on dialectal English, but I've never heard of
> au being pronounced /&U/ in any English dialect, only foreign languages.
> I only pronounce it /a/, and I've only heard of it being prounounced in
> other dialects as /O/.

And therein lies the problem with fauxnetic, eye-dialectical transcription.
:)  It's true that "au" is typically /a/ in AmE, or /O/ in lects that
maintain the distinction, but it strikes me as an odd spelling choice for
that sound when clearer ones like "oss" and "ahs" are available.


> > I'm very skeptical of "woosh" for "wash". I mean,  "worsh", sure,
> > but "woosh"?
>
> /wUS/, rhymes with toosh.

Ah.  I spell that "tush", and I read "woosh" as /wu:S/, which I think you'll
agree is unlikely as a dialectical variant of |wash|.  :)  But
rhymes-with-bush, I can believe.


> Yes, my grandmother and other elder peoples of my family certiainly
> pronounce it this way, no r at all.  I've never heard /wOrS/, /warS/ or
> any variant with an r.  I suspect either the r was imagined by observers
> from less rhotic dialects (e.g., New York), or there was a conspiracy to
> eliminate dialectal variations of the City of Allegheny (where my family
> comes from) and which was forcibly annexed by the City of Pittsburgh in
> the early 20th century.  Or my family's weird.

I have no knowledge of Pennsylvanian dialects, but I've heard rhotic "wash"
in West Virginian English. It's genuine.

--
Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>

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