Phonology of English in Maine

Peter Sipes

Phonology of English in Maine

Sociolinguistic considerations

1.3 million people 95% white 92.9% speak English at home

4.7% speak French at home (Source: MLA Language Map)

Poverty and education levels similar to US average Home-ownership rate above US average Highest median age in the US (source: Maine DHHS) Settled by the English in 17th Century
Data source: US Census Bureau, 2010 census data, unless noted

Phonology of English in Maine

Similar to Boston accent (Good Will Hunting)

Native Mainers claim to be able to tell the difference

Nearly identical to New Hampshire accent Not the same as Vermont

Western New England accent

Northeastern Maine has a different accent due to prevalence of French (22.4% speak at home in Aroostook County)

Phonology of English in Maine

Some lexical notes

ayuh wicked some jeezum Some speakers use double negatives Adjectives (e.g. some, wicked) as adverbs So don't I

Some syntactic notes

Phonology of English in Maine

Rhoticity

R-deletion

not universal never in onsets only possible in coda

immediately after a vowel some consonants may follow heart, hard, harsh

never between vowels (in theory, I've heard otherwise) allows for English words to end in lax vowels lobster ['lbst]

Phonology of English in Maine

Rhoticity

R-deletion

leads to rounding of some vowels were [w]

Phonology of English in Maine

Rhoticity

R-insertion

only r-deleters do this same as r-deletion, but in reverse always between vowels (in theory, I've heard otherwise) an idea of it [n edir v t] motor oil [mot l]

people are aware of this phenomenon

Phonology of English in Maine

Ayuh

['j] or ['j] or [ei] may also be ingressive

Phonology of English in Maine

Vowels in General

// backed to [a], for some speakers

cut in half [kt n hf] lobster ['lbst] notch [nt] the reverse of what we're doing in Chicago father ['fa]

// raised to // in many situations

some // fronted to /a/

Phonology of English in Maine

G dropping

many speakers will use the morpheme /n/ instead of // probably more of a sociolinguistic thing than phonological

Phonology of English in Maine

Mary, merry, marry merger

Nagy and Roberts say that some areas have no merger, other areas (Calais) has a two-way merger

/mei/ for Mary and marry /mi/ for merry

variable throughout // for /t/, particularly word end is typical of Vermont can also be heard here from NH (similar to ME)

Final t glottalization

www.lowlands-l.net/anniversary/newhampshireipa.php

Phonology of English in Maine

Your turn

Bar Harbor Katahdin Biddeford Millinocket Kennebunkport