LINGUIST List 2.587

Sat 28 Sep 1991

Qs: Warning, Nonsense syllables, Dialects

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1. Pamela Munro, Re: 2.549 Warning
2. Gary Strong, Nonsense syllables
3. , PA dialects

Message 1: Re: 2.549 Warning

RE: Machine-readable dictionaries
I have a former student who works with speech synthesis (now on German).
He has asked me for references to machine-readable dictionaries of well
known languages (e.g. English, Spanish, German) with pronunciations in pho-
netic symbols (not necessarily IPA, anything is fine). I have the feeling
I may have missed some postings about related subjects in the last few
months, but hope that any of you who know anything about this will let
me know, either directly to me or to the net. I will inform you all of
any responses I receive on this subject. Thanks so much for your help.
 Pam Munro

I need a reference on English Language nonsense syllables for use in
psychological experimentation, specifically 3-letter syllables, e.g.
"wiv", "ret", "ard", ... Is there a standard list available? Please
respond to me directly at "strongduvm" on bitnet or
"strongduvm.ocs.drexel.edu" on internet.
Gary W. Strong, Associate Professor
College of Information Studies
Drexel University
Philadelphia, PA 19104 USA
Tel.: 215-895-2482; FAX: 215-895-2494

Since we seem to be on the topic of PA dialects, here's a usage I've wondered
about for some time. I have a friend who hails from Pittsburgh and she uses
"whenever" when I (and everyone else I've ever heard) would use "when". So she
says things like "whenever I was in college we'd go to Friendly's every
weekend" although she was only in college once and shes means "during the
timespan I was in college we went..." and not "I was in college a bunch of
times and each time we went...". Has anyone else ever heard this?