How is bagel pronounced

During the school year, students in my introductory linguistics lecture at UW-Milwaukee collected data to map how Midwesterners vary in their pronunciation of the word bag. Specifically, we wanted to know where people use which pronunciation and whether age correlates with the difference. No region within Wisconsin tended to have more speakers pronouncing bag with [e:] than other regions.

In other words, the responses showed people using both pronunciations across the state with roughly the same frequency. When sounds change, the change they usually start in very specific contexts.

Eventually, people start using the vowel variation in words that rhyme. For example, if people pronounce bag with the [e:] vowel, they probably also use it in the words rag and tag. The vowel in bag is interesting for a number of reasons. First, it differs from another change in the region. A change known as the Northern Cities Vowel Shift has spread from upstate New York to southeast Wisconsin, involving vowels in words like stop , cottage , and Wisconsin.

Thus, speakers who pronounce bag with [e:] are more likely to also use the same vowel in the words rag and dragon. To understand how this vowel change is occurring across Wisconsin, we need more data on words with similar environments to bag from speakers of various ages. Language variation also has social importance.

After writing the draft for this article, I had two interesting encounters with the word bag. The next day, a student sent me a meme about the pronunciation of bag. Although Wisconsinites have been pronouncing bag with two different vowel sounds for roughly 70 years, there are still negative attitudes of the newer [e:] pronunciation. Test your vocabulary with our fun image quizzes. Image credits. Word of the Day kind-hearted. About this.

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