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

Mark J. Reed wrote:
> 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.
Yes, you are right, either "hahse" or "hoss" would have been a better
choice.  Oh well.


> I have no knowledge of Pennsylvanian dialects, but I've heard rhotic
> "wash"
> in West Virginian English. It's genuine.
But if I admitted the truth I would not have been able to hatch my
conspiracy theory about Pittsburgh's linguistic oppression of North Side
dialects!!~

Actually, on further thought I suspect the r actually redisappeared in my
grandmother's dialect, i.e., the order of sound changes went like this:

   /waS/ -> /warS/ -> /wUrS/ -> /wUS/

The second sound change was not a sproradic change like the other two.
There are a boatload of words in my dialect that apparently once began
with /war/ but have undergone systematic sound change to /wUr/.  (I
pronounce war, wart, warm, ward, warp, and warn all with a /U/, rounded
and everything.)  I'm not sure what other dialects have this peculiarity.


Carl Banks