Date: Sat, 4 Feb 1995 01:40:06 CST

From: "Donald M. Lance" ENGDL[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MIZZOU1.BITNET

Subject: Re: "and them"



The [D] in "an' nem" isn't "lost" in Southern speech (maybe Midland as

well as Southern). My production of the phrase tells me it goes like this:

and them -- an' them (quite regular loss of -d in English dialects)

an' them -- an-nem (regressive positional and manner assimilation)

an-nem -- a-nem (simplification of [n-n] cluster)

My Sprachgefuel tells me that in the last of these (ordered) rules it's the

onset of the "long [n]" that is "lost".



In "right there" the first of the ordered rules to apply is glottalization

of the -t in "right", then glottal stop, then "loss" of the glottal stop.



The energy level in the production is stronger in [nen] and [dDEr] than in

the initial syllable of the phrase, so what's "lost" is in the weaker element.

For me: (D = "eth"; ae = low front vowel)

right there -- rai't Daer (glottalization) (I produce an "ash" rather than

"eh" in 'there' and 'hair' and others in this set. Those of you

who've participated in the historical merger of /E/ and /ae/

before /r/ will have the "eh" vowel here)

rai't D[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]r -- ria?-Daer (apical articulation suppressed, leaving glottal stop

or (sometimes one way, sometimes the other)

rai't D[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]e -- rai?-dDaer(voiced fricative becomes an affricate: [d]

with an "eth" release

rai?-Daer/ rai?-dDaer-- rai-Daer (weakening articulation of glottal stop

in weakly stressed "right")



These rules are "ordered" in two senses. The sequence in the list here

goes from "most careful" speech to rapid speech (not just formality).

And the sequence underlies the structuralist ordered rules that generate

the final form in the list. Ordered in the sense of SPE application of

all feature applications occurring at once in the process of generating

the phonetic form.



This is in response to David Johns' observation/claim about "the loss of

[D] in 'them'"



I agree with David on the more general use of [AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]n-nem to indicate

"X and whoever else" / "X and everwho else"

DMLance