Helene,
No, the NCVS is a very specific set of what are called "chain shifts" found in the major cities of the Great Lakes region. In NCVS, the vowel in "cat" changes to sound like the vowel in the second syllable of "idea", the vowel of "lock" then moves forward to occupy the position of the vowel in "cat", so "lock" sounds like "lack". Then the vowel in "cawed" lowers to sound like the vowel in "lock" or "cod". Next, the vowel in "bed" centralizes to sound like the vowel in "bud", pushing the vowel in "bud" back so that it sounds like "bawd", rhyming with "cawed". Finally the vowel in "kid" centralizes and lowers so that it sounds almost like the vowel in BBC English "bird". These shifts don't effect just the words listed, but all instances of these vowels, in whatever words they occur in. I've tried to describe this in non-phonetic terms, since I don't know how much phonetics you know. In a phonetic vowel chart, the directional references would make more sense. I'm sending you separately an Excel attachment that shows these shifts as they would appear in a phonetic chart.
Herb
-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar on behalf of helene hoover
Sent: Thu 3/16/2006 6:15 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Question: Language change and malapropism
Herb: Is this NCVS responsible for otherwise standard speakers of English
saying "Missour-ah" for "Missouri"? Along the same lines, how did New
England get to "Pack the kaa, Mack" for "Park the car, Mark"? Just curious.
Helene
>From: "Stahlke, Herbert F.W." <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Question: Language change and malapropism
>Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2006 14:53:45 -0500
>
>I wonder of the flush/flesh confusion might not be a feature of the
>Northern Cities Vowel Shift. I hadn't heard of the NCVS going all the way
>to the west coast, but it has gotten at least as far as Minneapolis and St.
>Louis. If you're not familiar with this sound change, it's a change that
>has taken place over the past century in the major cities around the
>southern shores of the Great Lakes, extending from about Syracuse west
>through Buffalo, Erie, Cleveland, Toledo, Detroit, Chicago, and Milwaukee.
>From those centers, it has spread out to smaller cities so that it's found
>now in Fort Wayne and Indianapolis as well as in Lansing and Traverse City.
> In this change, which effects quite a number of vowel sounds, the vowel
>/ae/, as in "cat" raises to /E/ ("pet"/) and even gets as high as /i/
>("seat"), so that the name "Anne" sounds like "Ian". In the process, /E/
>gets moved back to /A/, as in "cut", so that "bed" sounds like "bud". This
>set of shifts would, then, account for "flesh" sounding like "flush", but
>then I don't know if there's any other sign of NCVS hitting Seattle, or if,
>maybe, this speaker came from the Great Lakes states.
>
>
>
>Herb
>
>
>
>________________________________
>
>From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
>[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Wollin, Edith
>Sent: Thursday, March 16, 2006 2:14 PM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Question: Language change and malapropism
>
>
>
>I've been hearing the same problem with another phrase here in Seattle:
>"This needs to be flushed out." I'm not even sure if they are really saying
>"fleshed" and it just doesn't sound that way to me or if they know they are
>saying "flushed" and the meaning of "flesh out" has stuck to the whole
>phrase for them and they don't notice that they are saying almost the
>opposite of what they mean.
>
>
>
>This is how we entertain ourselves in meetings!
>
>Edith Wollin
>
>
>
>________________________________
>
>From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
>[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Linda DiDesidero
>Sent: Thursday, March 16, 2006 9:33 AM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Question: Language change and malapropism
>
>Thanks for responding, Herb.
>
>Yes, the students pronounce blase /blah- ze/. I have heard it is from a
>rap song that has that refrain, but I'm afraid that I'm not that familiar
>with rap music.
>
>
>
>What bothers me about the "chock it up to experience" example is that the
>student has no idea what 'chock/chalk' means--the phrase has become a
>linguistic whole for this student. She has no clue that she is writing
>about metaphorically making a chalk mark or tally. So this might be
>isolated BUT the /blah--ze/ is not. I'm actually wondering if this could
>be thought of as onomatopeia.
>
>
>
>Thanks.
>
>Linda
>
>PS I know what you mean about cot/caught and hock/hawk--we lived in Chicago
>for several years, but now we are back East where all my NE Philly
>relatives say things like "Yeeah, lez go howme"
>
>
>
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Stahlke, Herbert F.W. <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Sent: Thu, 16 Mar 2006 09:26:43 -0500
>Subject: Re: Question: Language change and malapropism
>
>Interesting questions. Do they pronounce "blasé" with two syllables or as
>if it has a silent e? The chock/chalk confusion may arise from a sound
>change, the a/aw merger that is found in a band about 100 miles north to
>south from about Pittsburg west to the Mississippi and then everywhere west
>of the Mississippi north of a line from about St. Louis to El Paso. These
>speakers pronounce "cot" and "caught" with the same vowels, which,
>depending on area, may be either both /a/ or both /aw/. There was until
>recently a store in here in Muncie called "The Muncie Hawk Shop". At first
>I thought it was a similar confusion of "hawk" and "hock" until I spoke to
>the owner and learned that it was intentional. Because he had an earlier
>felony conviction he could not be bonded and therefore could not get a
>pawnbroker's license, so instead he opened a buy-sell shop. By spelling
>the word "hawk", which this area pronounces the same as "hock", he was able
>both to be within the law and to given the impression of functioning as a
>"hock shop".
>
>
>
>Another widely used form of a different sort is "hone in on" for "home in
>on". The Merriam Webster Dictionary of English Usage dates this usage to
>1978, citing it in a primary campaign speech by George H. W. Bush. I have
>since found it in such places as the New York Times Magazine. I still
>reject it in student writing, which is, I fear, every bit as pedantic and
>tendentious as rejecting "most unique".
>
>
>
>Herb
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>________________________________
>
>From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
>[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Linda DiDesidero
>Sent: Thursday, March 16, 2006 8:44 AM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Question: Language change and malapropism
>
>
>
>The discussion of the broadening of the meaning of 'unique' is interesting,
>but I see a different problem that I might call widespread malapropism.
>
>
>
>My students often create terms or use them as malapropisms--and these may
>be derived from rap music or these may have their roots in Microsoft Word's
>spell-checker. Does anyone else know anything more about this?
>
>
>
>One frequently occurring example is the word 'blase' to mean "bla-bla-bla"
>or 'yadayadayada". My students will actually say: "blase blase blase"
>thinking that it is equivalent to these other terms. So when this phrase
>enters widespread use, can we say that the meaning of 'blase' has altered?
>(even though most students who use it in this context do not know that they
>have altered a meaning; they think they have learned a new word.)
>
>
>
>The other phenomenon has to do with what we might call homonyms, such as:
>
>
>
>'chock it up to experience'
>
>"she was a pre-madonna"
>
>
>
>While these examples are clearly homonyms--and you think that the person
>had heard the phrase and has just spelled it incorrectly, perhaps with the
>aid of a spell-checker--they really do express concepts that are
>fundamentally different from the ones they mimic.
>
>
>
>Chalking it up to experience is different than chocking it up (or chucking
>it up) to experience.
>
>
>
>A prima donna is a different concept than a pre-Madonna, even though they
>both involve females.
>
>
>
>Any thoughts?
>
>
>
>Linda DiDesidero
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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