Date:    Tue, 17 Mar 1998 09:52:53 -0500
<br>From:    Alan Baragona  baragonasa[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]VAX.VMI.EDU 
<br>Subject: Re: midwestern pronunciation
<br>
<br>At 01:02 AM 3/17/98 -0600, Donald M. Lance wrote:
<br> 
<br> The way these pronunciations would have been related to join/jine, as I
<br> assume you understand in your reference to earlier British English, is that
<br> the "long i" was schwa-I rather than ah-I and "oi" had a centralish onset
<br> as well.  I wouldn't be surprised to find some Americans in many parts of
<br> the country in the 19th century with vowels of that sort.  So it could have
<br> been a rhyme or near rhyme.  Your original posting didn't give enough of
<br> the context to allow for more than speculation.  Could the poet have been
<br> playing with language?
<br> 
<br> DMLance
<br> 
<br>
<br>Doubtful that this is deliberate language play.  The clumsiness of that
<br>opening stanza seems typical of Dunn's verse.  He was a folk poet with no
<br>pretensions to quality.  This partiular book of poems went through 5
<br>editions (at least) but probably as much for the agricultural advice in the
<br>back as for the poetry.
<br>
<br>Alan B.
<br>