question for the linguists

[psocoptera]

Ok, so, the Dr. Seuss book "Hop On Pop" presents pairs of words like "cup" and "pup" and then combines them in super-simple phrases and sentences like "pup in cup". These words are invariably similarly-spelled rhymes (long/song, back/black, etc) *except*, to my ear, one pair, "wet" and "get", which have, to my ear, different vowel sounds, "wEHt" and "gIHt" (I don't know the official way to transcribe that, but I hope that makes sense). When I mentioned this to Josh, though, he said what are you talking about, of course wEHt and gEHt rhyme, and when I tried to pronounce more clearly and slowly, he said, huh, you are saying "git" there aren't you, why are you doing that.

So, my question for the linguists, do these different pronunciations of "get" correspond to some particular regional accent (like, I could have picked up "git" from my midwestern parents or something)? I have to work to say "gett", I pretty much have to think of it as a different word (Getty, ghetto, don't say the last syllable) or it gets overridden by "git". Josh and I have mostly lived pretty similar places so I was surprised by this (and also surprised our accents haven't completely merged by now).

Comments

[ursula]

Where in the Midwest are your parents from? A little bit of googling says that in the US the "git" pronunciation is stereotypically associated with the South, but shows up in the Midwest too.

[gallian.livejournal.com]

My southern father says 'git' (rhymes with pit)
My ny mother says 'get' (rhymes with wet)

In my lexicon it rhymes with wet.

[tanyareed.livejournal.com]

Hmmnn...I'm from Nova Scotia, and wet and get rhyme for me.

[q10.livejournal.com]

rough IPA transcription is /ɡɛt/ for the version that rhymes with 'wet' and /ɡɪt/ for the one that rhymes with 'whit' (assuming you pronounce 'wet' and 'whit' roughly the way i do). wiktionary lists both as possible pronunciations, and i have the sense that i've heard both (for me it's /ɡɛt/). i don't know what regions this is associated with.

[q10.livejournal.com]

i pinged a sociolinguist friend and he couldn't find anything specific on a quick look through his references, but expressed a suspicion that your version was reasonably widespread.

[antimony.livejournal.com]

It's hard to be sure once I start overthinking it, but I think I say /ɡɪt/ most of the time. I can say /ɡɛt/ and think I naturally would in that rhyme without noticing that I'd done so. Midwestern, specifically Cleveland, with some amount of Northern Cities Vowel Shift but not a huge amount, and with southern-Ohio relatives with a heavy Appalachian-y twang, who definitely say "git". Or even "gyet", with the two sounds dipthonged together (my IPA is too rusty and I am too lazy to relearn it).

I don't know how much of my accent I've kept after Swat and Boston -- while I enjoy linguistics, I'm not good at catching accent nuance while talking to people, so I don't notice minor variations much.

[irilyth]

To me, the weird thing about this is that it's not exactly "git" -- it doesn't rhyme with "fit", it's like halfway between "wet" and "fit". You should record yourself saying it and post it here. :^)

[jaipur.livejournal.com]

So do the kids look at you funny when you're reading it to them and it suddenly doesn't rhyme? :)