Stahlke, Herbert F.W. wrote:

>Here goes.
>
>I've wondered whether the insertion of a vowel between a glottalized
>consonant and a final nasal isn't part of another change, namely the use
>of a full vowel in previously reduced final syllables.  Since reduced
>syllables ending in sonorants become syllabic sonorants, the use of a
>full vowel blocks the syllabic sonorant.  A reduced vowel, of course,
>would not.  It's this latter phenomenon that I've observed in,
>particularly, female speakers in their teens and now up into their
>thirties.
>
>Herb
>
>
>Herb, Bill, and all,
>
>What's happening phonetically in words like "button" and "Martin" in 
>most American speech is, as you've noted, use of a glottal stop instead 
>of the /t/. There is no vowel in the  glottal-stop + nasal syllable; 
>the nasal is the nucleus of the syllable (as Herb notes, the stop, 
>whether alveolar or glottal, is released nasally, with onset of voice, 
>making the nasal the only other sound in the syllable). Nuclear or 
>syllabic consonants are transcribed by putting a very small vertical 
>stroke under the nasal consonant. /r/, /l/, /m/, /n/, the "ng" sound 
>are frequently syllabic in word-final position after a stop. Some 
>people even change the nasal to match the consonant -- as in the 
>pronunication of "open" as "opm".
>
>The speakers that started this discussion seem to be re-inserting a 
>vowel between the glottal stop and the nasal. I could speculate on 
>reasons, but I don't have time right now. Maybe they are restoring the 
>syllable to the classic CVC structure.
>
>One of my favorite word reductions is "something". In my dialect, this 
>reduces to  /s/ plus nasalized "short u", followed by glottal stop 
>released into a syllabic /m/.
>
>I wonder if others have observed the loss of /y/ in words like 
>"Saturday", such that the word becomes "sa-er-day". There's all kinds 
>of interesting stuff going on. (There are?)
>
>As usual, could you post this for me?
>
>Dr. Johanna Rubba, Associate Professor, Linguistics
>Linguistics Minor Advisor
>English Department
>California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
>E-mail: [log in to unmask]
>Tel.: 805.756.2184
>Dept. Ofc. Tel.: 805.756.2596
>Dept. Fax: 805.756.6374
>URL: http://www.cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba
>
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>  
>
All,

This gets off the subject of discussion a bit, but I want to add some 
observations I have made about the dialect most of my students come to 
me with: Appalachian English. I also would add that these also apply to 
other speakers who aren't college students.

Others have pointed this out, too, but I hear less a-prefixing from the 
younger generation of Appalachian English speakers than shows up in 
older speakers from the area.

I hear fewer younger speakers saying "four mile"  and "fifteen year ago" 
than in the speech of older folks.

Double-modals like "might could" still show up in younger speakers but 
with less frequency than in the older generation.

There seems to be an even split over "dived" or "dove" in younger 
speakers, while older speakers used "dived" more.

"Theirselves" and "hisself" are still around in both generations, 
although I hear it less in the younger generation.

Appalachian speakers also use many indirect objects, especially "me,"  
that other dialects don't use: "I'm going to get me a Pepsi." Younger 
folks still use it, but not as often.

But Appalachian speakers of all ages still seem to use a phrase that 
many from outside the region totally misunderstand: "I don't care to 
help you." Natives say that to mean that they "don't mind helping you."

Periodically, in the Lexington, Kentucky newspaper there will be an 
article about some group in Eastern Kentucky who sets about the task of 
teaching Appalachian speakers how to speak standard English, but, of 
course, I don't think they have too many graduates.

Appalachia is still quite isolated, but the outside world has had some 
effect on the speech of these people.

Marshall

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