What are the accents of Baltimore and Washinton D.C. like? They seem to be right in the crossroads between the South and the Northeast. Are they cot-caught merged? Mary-merry-marry/hurry-furry/Sirius-serious merged?
Baltimore and D.C. accents
I think the Dialect Survey ( http://cfprod01.imt.uwm.edu/Dept/FLL/linguistics/dialect/ ) may be of some help here.
Maryland seems to be predominately Tory-torrent merged, hurry-furry merged, and serious-Sirius merged. The state is 77% cot-caught unmerged. DC seems to be basically similar regarding these issues, with 75% cot-caught unmerged.
Here are the results for Mary-merry-marry:
Maryland:
57% full 3M merger
8% full 3M distinction
21% Mary-merry merger only
1% merry-marry merger only
14% Mary-marry merger only
DC:
47% full 3M merger
17% full 3M distinction
18% Mary-merry merger only
1% merry-marry merger only
16% Mary-marry merger only
Maryland seems to be predominately Tory-torrent merged, hurry-furry merged, and serious-Sirius merged. The state is 77% cot-caught unmerged. DC seems to be basically similar regarding these issues, with 75% cot-caught unmerged.
Here are the results for Mary-merry-marry:
Maryland:
57% full 3M merger
8% full 3M distinction
21% Mary-merry merger only
1% merry-marry merger only
14% Mary-marry merger only
DC:
47% full 3M merger
17% full 3M distinction
18% Mary-merry merger only
1% merry-marry merger only
16% Mary-marry merger only
I just thought this was particularly funny: I pronounce every group of the words the same. For example, cot-caught/Mary-merry-marry/hurry-furry. There is no difference between the pronunciation for each group of words, and I really do think it's curious that other people say each word differently. It makes me wonder how they say it! :)
try here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltimorese
http://www.evolpub.com/Americandialects/MidAtldialects.html
''
Baltimore
Baltimore's dialect shares many characteristic pronunciations and words with its northern neighbor Philadelphia. One of these is the long o in words like home, which is very fronted, pronounced something like eh-oo. Otherwise, as we might expect, Baltimore's speech shows a distinctly Southern character. The diphthong oi is flattened to aw: bawl (boil), spawled (spoiled), as is long i before r: far (fire), arn (iron).''
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltimorese
http://www.evolpub.com/Americandialects/MidAtldialects.html
''
Baltimore
Baltimore's dialect shares many characteristic pronunciations and words with its northern neighbor Philadelphia. One of these is the long o in words like home, which is very fronted, pronounced something like eh-oo. Otherwise, as we might expect, Baltimore's speech shows a distinctly Southern character. The diphthong oi is flattened to aw: bawl (boil), spawled (spoiled), as is long i before r: far (fire), arn (iron).''
I read that Wikipedia page, but it didn't help much. What about non-rhoticism and {-tensing? Do they occur in Baltimore? How about the NCVS? Southern Shift? Mergers before /l/? It would be nice if I could find a scholarly description of the accent, but cities like Baltimore and Philadelphia seem to be overshadowed by Boston and New York when it comes to accent description.
NCVS map
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Northern_Cities_Vowel_Shift.svg
Non-rhoticity map
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Non_rhotic-whites-usa.png
Mergers before /l/
http://www.ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/maps/Map4L.html
http://www.ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/maps/Map5.html
http://www.ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/maps/Map7.html
{ tensing
www.ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/Atlas_chapters/Ch17_2nd.rev.pdf
As for the Southern Shift, you can read this chapter www.ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/Atlas_chapters/Ch18_2nd.rev.pdf , but as there doesn't seem to be any real glide deletion of /AI/ in the Baltimore area, which is the first stage of the Southern Shift, I would say no to that one.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Northern_Cities_Vowel_Shift.svg
Non-rhoticity map
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Non_rhotic-whites-usa.png
Mergers before /l/
http://www.ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/maps/Map4L.html
http://www.ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/maps/Map5.html
http://www.ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/maps/Map7.html
{ tensing
www.ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/Atlas_chapters/Ch17_2nd.rev.pdf
As for the Southern Shift, you can read this chapter www.ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/Atlas_chapters/Ch18_2nd.rev.pdf , but as there doesn't seem to be any real glide deletion of /AI/ in the Baltimore area, which is the first stage of the Southern Shift, I would say no to that one.