Re: Grammar

Bob LeChevalier wrote:
> 
> "Bill Bonde ( the oblique allusion in lieu of the frontal attack )"
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >Bob LeChevalier wrote:
> >> Holger Dansk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >> >On Mon, 01 Dec 2003 20:25:40 -0500, Bob LeChevalier <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> >> >wrote:
> >> >
> >> >>The problem you have is that there is NO "correct pronunciation" of
> >> >>English. Each dialect does it differently, and NONE of them are
> >> >>"right" or "wrong".
> >> >
> >> >If you do not realize that the negro pronunciation of the words that I
> >> >mentioned above is not correct then you have a problem with perception.
> >>
> >> No.  I have a problem with the notion of "correct" when it comes to
> >> English pronunciation.  Unlike French, we have no Academie, and there
> >> is no universal standard of "correct" pronunciation.
> >>
> >There's nothing wrong with thinking that how you say words is the
> >correct way. It's natural. We have dictionary producers to give us some
> >idea of how words are being mostly pronounced. If we all sounded exactly
> >network standard, would that be ideal? (Granted Peter Jennings should
> >speak American and Brokaw should take the cotton out of his mouth.)
> 
> So even network standard isn't standard among those on the network.
> 
If everyone spoke exactly the same, we couldn't tell each other apart by
voice. In any case, Brokaw and Jennings are *not* network standard in
that Jennings has a Canadian accent and Brokaw a weird lisp or
something.



> >> My wife distinguishes between "can" the noun, and "can" the verb, and
> >> between "Mary", "merry" and "marry".  They are homonyms to me.  She is
> >> bothered when the girl's name "Dawn" and "Don" are pronounced the
> >> same, but "Dawn" pronounces her own name such that my wife hears
> >> "Don".  You would apparently say that Dawn cannot pronounce her own
> >> name correctly, which is sheer idiocy.
> >>
> >Are you in Washington state?
> 
> I'm in Virginia, but raised on the San Francisco peninsula by parents
> from Michigan and NYC, and I went to college in Michigan; the most
> common dialect spoken in the bay area is a midwestern derivative.  My
> wife is from Philadelphia, which is a city with one of the most
> distinctive and localized accents in the country.
> 
I would pronounce 'Don' and 'Dawn' the same way. 'Caught' and 'cot' are
the same as well, I guess for the same reason. I have to be careful to
say 'roof' with the oo and not a schwa or something close. I hear this
form of speech all the time around here including on radio ads for
'roofers' (called 'r<schwa>ffers' in the ad). I think that eastern
Washington state is a hotbed of people who say 'w<schwa>f' for 'wolf'.