Date:    Thu, 7 May 1998 07:29:03 -0500
<br>From:    Mike Salovesh <t20mxs1[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]CORN.CSO.NIU.EDU>
<br>Subject: Re: Deleted "to";  'em singular
<br>
<br>David Sutcliffe wrote:
<br>>
<br>> Dear List,
<br>>
<br>
<br>>  What about the following features which I
<br>> would have thought originally Black and/or Southern:
<br>>
<br>> 1) Deletion of _to_ infinitive marker as in "I want you guys have a good
<br>> time"
<br>
<br>Fairly widespread usage in (white) Chicagoland a generation or two ago.
<br>The most frequent incidence I have noted was in (Irish) Bridgeport and
<br>Back of the Yards, on the South Side, and in North side areas of heavy
<br>Polish settlement.  The "deleted to" alternates with an unstressed schwa
<br>where "to" might have appeared: "I want you guys uh have a good time".
<br>
<br>This isn't part of my usual speech pattern.  When I deliberately set an
<br>alternative pattern (speaking platform English all the time can have
<br>horrible social consequences), I fall into the schwa form.
<br>
<br>> 2) The use of 'em for (h)im in unstressed position. (This question
<br>> assumes that speakers generally have an opposition between schwa and lax
<br>> /I/ in unstressed syllables).
<br>
<br>Perfectly good (white) Chicagoese when I was growing up.  Most varieties
<br>did have that two-way contrast. The "'em" form may well represent a
<br>homonym pair, for either "him" or "them", in the unstressed position.
<br>
<br>There are some speakers who have a three way split in unstressed
<br>syllables: schwa, lax /I/ (or is that a barred i?), and a lax, backed
<br>mid-front /e/ or /E/.  The third one sounds too centralized to be in the
<br>homophone range of /e/ - /E/ in stressed syllables, but it isn't as
<br>central as schwa, either.  For those speakers, "'im" (for him) and "'em"
<br>(for them) would contrast: the "him" form would have schwa, the "them"
<br>form would come out in the backed /e/ - /E/ range.
<br>
<br>I get the impression that the three-way split in the unstressed position
<br>is a kind of  hyperurbanism.  (There's my old Milwaukeee teacher
<br>inveighing against "dropped aitches" again.)  Making consistent
<br>distinctions among two or three unstressed, central vowels doesn't
<br>restore the "missing" h or th, but it does maintain clear contrast
<br>between him and them.
<br>
<br>--  mike salovesh                               <salovesh[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]niu.edu>
<br>    anthropology department
<br>    northern illinois university                     PEACE !!!
<br>