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From: Paul.Hilfinger@CMU-CS-A@sri-unix.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Phonetic query
Message-ID: <3392@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 23-Jul-83 14:20:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.3392
Posted: Sat Jul 23 14:20:00 1983
Date-Received: Mon, 25-Jul-83 04:38:29 EDT
Lines: 16

From:  Paul.Hilfinger@CMU-CS-A (C410PH01)

Does anyone have time for a completely trivial query?  I've noticed
that Larry Niven consistently renders the word ``yeah'' (officially
pronounced with an `a' as in `air', `dare', or `Mary') as ``Yah.''At
first, I thought that this was simply an instance of the superior
observational powers of the professional writer and that I had never
listened carefully to how people actually pronounced it.  But when I
started listening closely, I invariably heard `yeah' or `yuh' but
never `yah.'  So what is the explanation?  Do people say `yeah' in
Detroit, New Jersey, New York, Pittsburgh, and the San Francisco Bay
area and `yah' everywhere else?  Is Niven trying to throw
eccentricities into his writing to slow me down?  If so, he's
succeeding.

Paul Hilfinger (reply to Hilfinger@Berkeley)