which accent do you prefer British or American?

<<But I do pronounce "aunt" as "ahnt" rather than "ant". ;-) >>

Hehe, that reminds me of a friend of mine here who was originally from Boston but moved to California when she was like 10 or something, so she sounds completely Californian except she does say [Ant] instead of [{nt], which is the norm here (tho [Ant] is very occasionally heard by a native Californian, it's really rare). She's convinced it's the "proper" way to pronounce it and that everyone here says it "wrong"--hehe. But to add confusion to her argument, she's also told me several times that she thinks Californians "don't have accents" but "everyone else does"....oh, gotta love folk linguistics :)

This map: http://cfprod01.imt.uwm.edu/Dept/FLL/linguistics/dialect/staticmaps/q_1.html shows how the [Ant] people are strongly concentrated in New England, although there are some pockets of them elsewhere. Just out of curiosity, here are the state-level survey results for MA and CA:

Massachusetts:
57% [Ant]
14% [{nt]
plus others who use [Q] or are variable

California:
78% [{nt]
6% [A]
plus others who use [Q] or are variable

Just checking through the New England states, Rhode Island has the highest percentage of people who say [Ant] (77%). Massachusetts, of course, includes a large western area ("Westawoosta") that doesn't exhibit as many ENE characteristics, so there are some categories, like using [Ant] or "bubbler", where Rhode Island scores higher.

<<California:
78% [{nt]
6% [A]
plus others who use [Q] or are variable >>

Sounds about right! As I said before [A] can indeed be rarely heard by Californians, but it's definitely the minority pronunciation, to the point that if I hear someone say it it definitely stands out to my ears, while [{nt] doesn't. Thanks for citing that, Lazar.

<<But I do pronounce "aunt" as "ahnt" rather than "ant". ;-) >>


Ah ha! So you're a "good New Englander after all," well except maybe for those R's. :) I would never call my aunt a bug.

<<But to add confusion to her argument, she's also told me several times that she thinks Californians "don't have accents" but "everyone else does"....oh, gotta love folk linguistics :) >>

Yes, I'm afraid I fall into that category but I'm going to print out your tutorials and keep the hard copy on hand. Who knows maybe I'll catch on my osmosis. Hopefully I won't get as muddled as I did in the "bow" episode.

<< ("Westawoosta")>>

LOL. Yes, that's what I meant by a strong accent. :) The caller on "Click and Clack" said she was from the "Wista-eria" or so it sounded. Turned out she had said the "Worcester area." Even Click & Clack, (Car talk), who are from Boston of course, couldn't figure it out for awhile.

Just a question (maybe a stupid one)

What are the main features of New England's accent? what does it sound like?

<<Yes, I'm afraid I fall into that category but I'm going to print out your tutorials and keep the hard copy on hand. Who knows maybe I'll catch on my osmosis. Hopefully I won't get as muddled as I did in the "bow" episode.>>

Wow, I'm published now! ;) Hehe, yeah, if you just slip the papers under your pillow at night the whole osmosis thing just might work out...

<<What are the main features of New England's accent? what does it sound like?>>

Well, as always with languages, there are several distinct varieties of English spoken in New England so it's hard to generalize, as some of their features vary quite widely. If you'd like to know more about the Eastern New England accent (Boston), here's a good article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_New_England_English

As for specifics on New England accents, I'll let Lazar tackle that one, as that's his area.

<<Of course, the "bowed" which is being referred to is the latter of the two. As for myself, I maintain a distinction between "bode" and "bowed" (as in bent) in only quite formal speech, and merge them as /bod/ -> [bo:d] or [bo:d_0] in all other speech.>>

How do you distinguish between ''bode'' and ''bowed'' (as in bent) in formal speech, Travis?

<<As for specifics on New England accents, I'll let Lazar tackle that one, as that's his area.>>

Haha, I guess I would be the resident expert on those.

Now Kirk, the following goes for you too, because I don't think I've ever really made clear to you the fundamental dialect divisions within New England. ;-)

To give you a basic view of New England dialects, I would say that there are two fundamental (and overlapping) divisions.

1. Between the Worcester-Boston-Providence (WBP) area and the rest of New England.

The WBP area is the coastal urban section of New England, and it exhibits some of the most distinctive New England features, such as non-rhotacism (dropping R's at the ends of syllables) and saying "bubbler" rather than "water fountain" or "drinking fountain". Other distinctive features are the trap-bath split (pronouncing "bath", "pass", etc as "bahth", "pahth") and the preservation of a lot of pre-R vowel distinctions that are lost elsewhere in North America: Mary-merry-marry, serious-Sirius, hurry-furry, Tory-torrent, and (to a lesser extent) horse-hoarse. Also, in the WBP area the open unrounded vowel phoneme tends to be fronted compared to other dialects ([a] rather than [A]).

In the rest of New England, non-rhotacism and the trap-bath split are rare, the open unrounded vowel phoneme is often [A] rather than [a], the pre-R vowel distinctions mentioned above are in a minority, and it's "water fountain" rather than "bubbler".

2. Between Northern New England (Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine) and Southern New England (Rhode Island, Connecticut). This division cuts the non-rhotic WBP area in half, with Worcester and Boston siding with the North and Providence siding with the South.

The North exhibits a distinctive vowel system in which "cot-caught" are merged but "father-bother" are not merged.

The South, on the other hand, exhibits the vowel system more common throughout the rest of the Eastern United States, in which "father-bother" are merged but "cot-caught" are not merged.

(So Kirk, it may actually surprise you to know that down in Providence you can get people with traditional, non-rhotic Eastern New England accents who are nonetheless father-bother merged and cot-caught unmerged.)

<<That's interesting. I live in New England, and I pronounce "bode" and "bowed" exactly the same, with [oU]. In fact I've never heard of anyone in this region (or anyone outside of Britain, for that matter) maintaining distinctions like "bode-bowed". Do you have any sources to back this claim up?>>

Lazar,

According to the Wikipedia article on the toe-tow merger http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toe-tow_merger , the distinction between /o/ and /oU/ is preserved by some speakers in Newfoundland which is outside of Britain.

Very interesting, Lazar, thanks for those explanations :)

<<(So Kirk, it may actually surprise you to know that down in Providence you can get people with traditional, non-rhotic Eastern New England accents who are nonetheless father-bother merged and cot-caught unmerged.)>>

I figured such people existed but I definitely wouldn't've had the faintest idea where in New England they lived...

<<I figured such people existed but I definitely wouldn't've had the faintest idea where in New England they lived....>>

Yeah, the dialectal situation in New England can be quite complex. ;-) Take for example Jerry Remy, a popular sports announcer here who covers Red Sox games. He exhibits classic ENE characteristics, like non-rhotacism, a fronted [a] instead of [A], intrusive R's ("Benoit is"=[bEnwar\Iz]) and the trap-bath split ("ask"=[ask]). But nonetheless he's quite obviously father-bother merged and cot-caught distinct, saying things like [t@mar\oU] ("tomorrow"). I figured that he must be from the Providence area, and sure enough I've read that he was born in Fall River, MA, which is right across the border from Rhode Island and sides more with Providence than with Boston dialectally. Another example, more recognizable on a national level, would be Emeril Lagasse (also from Fall River, MA), who likewise exhibits non-rhotacism and the trap-bath split but nonetheless is f-b merged and c-c unmerged.

[It's ironic that both of these examples of a "Providence accent" actually come from MA, but southeastern MA exhibits many dialectal and cultural similarities with Rhode Island. As Uriel has noticed, southeastern MA shares Rhode Island's peculiar affinity for coffee-flavored milk. ;-)]

Off topic: I believe Trawick and Travis are the same person. How many of you agree with me on that. Their writings suggest me so, same long never end sentences.

>>Off topic: I believe Trawick and Travis are the same person. How many of you agree with me on that. Their writings suggest me so, same long never end sentences.<<

Um, no, we are most definitely different individuals.