From: Andrew Jarrette
Message: 63719
Date: 2009-03-31
>Sorry, obviously my memory of these kinds of speeches is flawed. I must have confused my memory of Kennedy's proclamations with my memory of Bill Clinton saying, in his speeches, "my child" as /ma: tSa:ld/. Yes, Kennedy had /a:/ from <ar> ([Ar] etc.) in words like "hard". I apologize for any seeming disrespect or disregard of American history, I was self-assuredly wrong.
> I can't say for sure, but as a Californian, to my ears, the dropping of 'i' from 'ai' is southern/Appalachian 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
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Andrew Jarrette
> Sent: Saturday, March 28, 2009 5:00 PM
> To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [tied] Re: PGmc question
>
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski <gpiotr@> wrote:
> >
> > Another example of this terrible feeling of d�j� 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 [�o] etc. etc. pronunciations of /aU/ are still going pretty strong, it seems, in many regions.
>
> Andrew
>