Date:    Fri, 8 May 1998 08:46:54 EDT
<br>From:    RonButters <RonButters[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]AOL.COM>
<br>Subject: Re: Ben vs. bin
<br>
<br>In a message dated 5/7/98 6:20:07 PM, you wrote:
<br>
<br><<'Ben' [bEn] is the norm in (again) Minnesota, and probably as far east as
<br>Chicago, according to my many polled students.  I've lived out of Minnesota
<br>for 30+ years now, so I noticed the change from my childhood [bIn] to [bEn]
<br>first in Garrison Keillor: remember his opening song, "I've ben gone so
<br>long ...?  Then I started hearing it in my Mpls. brother, and then my
<br>rural-area nieces, and on and on.  My sister (in Winona, MN) doesn't have
<br>[bEn], so I suspect it started in the Minneapolis area or northward and has
<br>been spreading outward.  Any other thoughts on this spread?  BTW, I discuss
<br>it in my Soclx class as another vowel shift, from British tense [i] to lax
<br>[I] to lowered lax [E]--something like the [e] to [E] (noted by Bergdahl)
<br>to [ae] in "available" that I asked about the other day.  I recall Reagan's
<br>similar lowering in [kael[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]fornya] ([E] for me); is this common on the West
<br>Coast?>>
<br>
<br>[I] versus [E] in environments before nasals is generally subject to
<br>neutralization  (cf. PIN versus PEN, JIM vesus GEM) and for many speakers the
<br>two phonemes have merged. Speakers who have merged/neutralized the two vary
<br>freely in speech from [bIn] to [bEn]. Speakers who have not merged/neutralized
<br>the two hear BEN and tend to assume that it is an invariant pronunciation.
<br>
<br>Also, sentence and word stress affect BEEN, which tends to be lightly stressed
<br>and therefore reduced even for speakers who do not have [I]/[E]
<br>neutralization.
<br>
<br>So in short, it may not be accurate to say that  [bEn] is the "norm" in
<br>Minnesota: it is more likely  that speakers say both [bIn] and [bEn]--that
<br>free variation is the norm.
<br>
<br>Also, at least part of the reduction of [ae] in CALIFORNIA must be stress-
<br>related. The main stress is on the FOR, and [ae] will therefore tend to become
<br>less tense (or, rather, more lax). Still, the lowering of [ae] to [E] before
<br>liquids is not particularly new--cf. WHEELBARROW is typically [wilbEro].  By
<br>the way, Ronald Reagan was not a native Californian (there aren't that many
<br>85-year-old native Californians in anyi case). The Midwest--most particularly,
<br>lower Illinois (where [wilbEro] is normal)--must take the blame for his
<br>spawning.
<br>