Subject
Re: 'ow about Hart? (fwd)
Date
Body
From: J. A. Rea <JAREA@UKCC.uky.edu>
Actually, in the dialect in question, there is no /h/ phoneme, and there
is "free variation" in words that are vowel initial, whether or not
"standard" English begins them with a vowel (or /h/). Put differently,
the dialect doesn't distinguish items beginning with /h/ from those
beginning with a vowel sound. Both types may "sporadically" tack on
an initial "noise" which sounds to standard speakers like /h/. This
adventitious sound is especially apt to be produced when the word in
questions is emphasized, as in the current instance. It is not unusual
also for French speakers to do the same thing sporadically, shouting,
say, "Allons!" with initial aspiration, which sounds like [halo~].
(what I have typed as square brackets on my keyboard may come through on
some screens as somethings else, such as a colon). This may also occur
in situations where two vowel sounds would occur in succession in French,
as in, say, "A` Amiens", where what sounds like an h-sound may appear
between the two /a/ sounds. In comic representations of the English
h-less variety, the performer often intentionally leaves off all "real"
h-sounds, and sticks in one before practically all vowel initial words,
with a "regularity" which is not achieved in natural h-less speech.
(Why did it take me so long to say that?) Sometimes Kipling did this
sort of thing to represent certain "lower class" varieties of British
English.
It eyen't the eavy aulin' that urts the orses oofs,
it's the steady ammer, ammer, ammer on the ard eye-weye.
Actually, in the dialect in question, there is no /h/ phoneme, and there
is "free variation" in words that are vowel initial, whether or not
"standard" English begins them with a vowel (or /h/). Put differently,
the dialect doesn't distinguish items beginning with /h/ from those
beginning with a vowel sound. Both types may "sporadically" tack on
an initial "noise" which sounds to standard speakers like /h/. This
adventitious sound is especially apt to be produced when the word in
questions is emphasized, as in the current instance. It is not unusual
also for French speakers to do the same thing sporadically, shouting,
say, "Allons!" with initial aspiration, which sounds like [halo~].
(what I have typed as square brackets on my keyboard may come through on
some screens as somethings else, such as a colon). This may also occur
in situations where two vowel sounds would occur in succession in French,
as in, say, "A` Amiens", where what sounds like an h-sound may appear
between the two /a/ sounds. In comic representations of the English
h-less variety, the performer often intentionally leaves off all "real"
h-sounds, and sticks in one before practically all vowel initial words,
with a "regularity" which is not achieved in natural h-less speech.
(Why did it take me so long to say that?) Sometimes Kipling did this
sort of thing to represent certain "lower class" varieties of British
English.
It eyen't the eavy aulin' that urts the orses oofs,
it's the steady ammer, ammer, ammer on the ard eye-weye.