My Accent

Travis   Sun Nov 26, 2006 11:10 am GMT
>>>> and the use of the word [ja:] ("ja"). <<

Does that mean that you say ja for yes, like in California English?<<

We still have the words "yes" [jEs] and "yeah" [jE{] or [jE] in addition to "ja" [ja:]. But as for Californian English "ja" and "ja" here, Californian English "yah" (I really don't like calling it "ja", as the use of that spelling is primarily to signify that such is a non-English Germanic loanword) is just English "yeah" with historical [{] lowered to [a], whereas "ja" here is of a distinctly different origin, being a loanword from other Germanic languages (typically High German dialects or Norse languages, but note that Low German languages have also been spoken here).

One note though is that it appears that many people here who do use "ja" do not keep it distinct from "yeah" in their minds, and will insist that they do not use "ja" even when they may be using "ja" in the very same conversation. When called on it, they very often use "yeah" [jE{] instead. Consequently, the use of "ja" is most often noticed by people who do not natively use "ja" who come in contact with those who do, who in general very strongly notice the use of "ja".
Travis   Sun Nov 26, 2006 11:19 am GMT
>>Does L. N. have the Northern Cities vowel shift? I didn't really notice it, as it usually is a pretty distinctive feature of the Northern accent. But I didn't hear the Canadian shift either.<<

Note though that the NCVS need not be as strong as the stereotypical case of realizing historical /{/ as [I@]. Rather it can take the form of simply raising historical /{/ to a weak diphthong like [E{] or just simply [E] and fronting historical /A/ to a front or central vowel. It seemed that L. N. has both of these, which would mean that he does have the NCVS to some degree. As for the Canadian Shift, yes, L. N. definitely does not have such.

>>As for the devoicing of the "d" in "second", isn't that fairly common for this particular word? I certainly do it.<<

But listen more carefully - "second" was not the only thing that had word-final devoicing in L. N.'s samples.

>>One thing I noticed when listening to it again is the pronunciation of the vowel in "Comma" vs. the vowel in odd.<<

I noticed this too, and did not know what to make of it. It sounded like the vowel being used was [O], and by that I mean cardinal [O] and not the vowel used for canonical /O/ around here, which is actually between cardinal [O] and [Q]. At the same time, I did not hear this particular vowel anywhere else in L. N.'s samples, either.
mike   Sun Nov 26, 2006 12:01 pm GMT
>>Also, FYI, "Far East" is a terribly outdated term. <<

then what do you call them?
Travis   Sun Nov 26, 2006 12:16 pm GMT
>>then what do you call them?<<

East Asia, in the case of Korea, Japan, China, and Taiwan, or Southeast Asia, in the case of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia, East Timor, Papua New Guinea, and the Philippines.
mike   Sun Nov 26, 2006 12:41 pm GMT
>>Also, FYI, "Far East" is a terribly outdated term. <<

since when this term became outdated?
Sagen   Sun Nov 26, 2006 3:49 pm GMT
>> >>Also, FYI, "Far East" is a terribly outdated term. <<

since when this term became outdated? <<

Since 1998 when the English Language Academy passed bill 429-A, which deprecated the term "Far East" in favor of the terms East Asia and Southeast Asia.
User   Mon Nov 27, 2006 4:07 am GMT
Because he doesn't have the full c-c merger, can we conclude that he's not from North Dakota, or northern Minnesota, northern Wisconsin, or the Upper penninsula? Or do some people there not have it completely?
Travis   Mon Nov 27, 2006 7:59 am GMT
>>Because he doesn't have the full c-c merger, can we conclude that he's not from North Dakota, or northern Minnesota, northern Wisconsin, or the Upper penninsula? Or do some people there not have it completely?<<

I know that the c-c merger is prevalent in North Dakota and Minnesota, so it likely rules those out. As for northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula, it has been spreading into Wisconsin from the west, and while it may be more widespread in the north than the south, I really do not know about its true extent in northern Wisconsin and the UP even though I hear it is common up there. It is not prevalent down here in Milwaukee, and those who seem c-c merged or transitional are generally not truly merged or transitional but rather have or have partially shifted [O]/[Q] to [A].

At the same time, with things like the c-c merger often they do not spread uniformly but rather leave islands of unaffected or not-completely-affected dialects. This means that even if most dialects in Minnesota or northern Wisconsin have the c-c merger that does not necessarily definitively rule out any unmerged lects from being from those areas.
Guest   Thu Nov 30, 2006 3:35 pm GMT
So, how close are we?
Guest   Sun Dec 03, 2006 1:47 am GMT
Are you a native speaker?