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7/31/2019 Maine English Phonology
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Phonology of English in Maine
Peter Sipes
7/31/2019 Maine English Phonology
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Phonology of English in Maine
Sociolinguistic considerations 1.3 million people 95% white 92.9% speak English at home
4.7% speak French at home (Source: MLA Language Map) Poverty and education levels similar to US average
Home-ownership rate above US average Highest median age in the US (source: Maine DHHS) Settled by the English in 17th Century
Data source: US Census Bureau, 2010 census data, unless noted
7/31/2019 Maine English Phonology
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Phonology of English in Maine
Similar to Boston accent ( Good Will Hunting ) Native Mainers claim to be able to tell the difference
Nearly identical to New Hampshire accent Not the same as Vermont
Western New England accent Northeastern Maine has a different accent due to
prevalence of French (22.4% speak at home inAroostook County)
7/31/2019 Maine English Phonology
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Phonology of English in Maine
Some lexical notes ayuh wicked some jeezum
Some syntactic notes Some speakers use double negatives Adjectives (e.g. some, wicked) as adverbs So don't I
7/31/2019 Maine English Phonology
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Phonology of English in Maine
Rhoticity R-deletion
not universal never in onsets only possible in coda
immediately after a vowel some consonants may follow heart, hard, harsh
never between vowels (in theory, I've heard otherwise) allows for English words to end in lax vowels lobster ['lbst]
7/31/2019 Maine English Phonology
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Phonology of English in Maine
Rhoticity R-deletion
leads to rounding of some vowels were [w]
7/31/2019 Maine English Phonology
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Phonology of English in Maine
Rhoticity R-insertion
only r-deleters do this same as r-deletion, but in reverse always between vowels (in theory, I've heard
otherwise) an idea of it [n edir v t]
people are aware of this phenomenon motor oil [mot l ]
7/31/2019 Maine English Phonology
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Phonology of English in Maine
Ayuh ['j] or ['j] or [ei] may also be ingressive
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Phonology of English in Maine
Vowels in General // backed to [a], for some speakers
cut in half [kt n hf]
// raised to // in many situations lobster ['lbst] notch [nt] the reverse of what we're doing in Chicago
some // fronted to /a/ father ['fa]
7/31/2019 Maine English Phonology
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Phonology of English in Maine
G dropping many speakers will use the morpheme /n/ instead
of //
probably more of a sociolinguistic thing than phonological
7/31/2019 Maine English Phonology
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Phonology of English in Maine
Mary, merry, marry merger Nagy and Roberts say that some areas have no
merger, other areas (Calais) has a two-way merger
/mei/ for Mary and marry /mi/ for merry
variable throughout Final t glottalization
// for /t/, particularly word end is typical of Vermont can also be heard here from NH (similar to ME)
www.lowlands-l.net/anniversary/newhampshire-
ipa.php
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Phonology of English in Maine
Your turn Bar Harbor Katahdin Biddeford Millinocket Kennebunkport