Re: ai to a

--- On Sun, 3/29/09, congotre o <congotron@...> wrote:

> I
> can't say for sure, but as a Californian, to my ears,
> the dropping of 'i' from 'ai' is
> southern/Appalachia n but not New
> England.    Just listening to Kennedy in
> youtube's 'Inaugural Speech'
> ('my fellow americans' + 'kennedy') gives
> you clear pronunciation of 'ai' as in
> 'my' 'right' and 'within aw-a
> lifetime'.
> Certainly, most prominently in New England speech is
> the dropping of terminal -r.
> as in 'more', 'failure' (failya)
> 'course'   etc
>
> From: Andrew
> Jarrette

> --- In cybalist@...
> s.com, Piotr Gasiorowski <gpiotr@...> wrote:
>
> >
>
> > Another example of this terrible feeling of
> dï¿½jï¿½ vu is the development
>
> > of PGmc. *ai > OE a: (/A:/), which also is
> happening or has happened in
>
> > several modern accents.
>
> >
> I know: Bill Clinton (e.g. [ma:] for 'my', [ta:m]
> for 'time', [ra:t] for 'right', etc.); seems
> primarily a Southern thing but also some New England as I
> believe John F. Kennedy had a similar pronunciation. But I
> think this pronunciation of /aI/ is dwindling with the
> passage of generations while the [ï¿½o] etc. etc.
> pronunciations of /aU/ are still going pretty strong, it
> seems, in many regions.
>
> Andrew
>

And there's Appalachian and Upper Southern /ae/ as in "my book" /mae bük, mae bök/ and "right" /raet/
while /ae/ often goes to /E/: /TEts mae bök, DIsnz yorn/ "That's my book, this one is yourn"