Drawl

Drawl

A drawl is a perceived feature of some varieties of spoken English, and generally indicates longer vowel sounds and/or diphthongs. Varieties of English which are said to feature pronounced drawls include Southern American English, Californian English and Australian English, especially Broad Australian English.

The Southern Drawl, or the diphthongization or triphthongization of the traditional short front vowels as in the words pat, pet, and pit: these develop a glide up from their original starting position to [j] and, in some cases, back down to schwa.

/æ/ → [æj(ə)]
/ɛ/ → [ɛj(ə)]
/ɪ/ → [ɪj(ə)]

References

  • Nagle Stephen, Sanders Sara L. (eds.) (2003). English in the Southern United States. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. (pp)19,26. 

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • drawl — [dro:l US dro:l] v [I and T] [Date: 1500 1600; Origin: Probably from DRAW1] to speak slowly, with vowel sounds that are longer than usual ▪ Can t do that, he drawled languidly. >drawl n [singular] ▪ What you got there? he asked in a slow Texan …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • drawl — drawl; drawl·er; drawl·ing·ly; …   English syllables

  • drawl´er — drawl «drl», (verb, noun.) –v.t., v.i. to talk in a slow, lazy way, drawing out the vowels: »He drawled his words as if the effort of speech was too great for him. –n. a slow, lazy way of talking: »The captain strolls about in a relaxed manner,… …   Useful english dictionary

  • Drawl — Drawl, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Drawled}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Drawling}.] [Prob. fr. draw: cf. D. dralen to linger, tarry, Icel. dralla to loiter. See {Draw}, and cf. {Draggle}.] To utter in a slow, lengthened tone. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Drawl — Drawl, v. i. To speak with slow and lingering utterance, from laziness, lack of spirit, affectation, etc. [1913 Webster] Theologians and moralists . . . talk mostly in a drawling and dreaming way about it. Landor. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Drawl — Drawl, n. A lengthened, slow monotonous utterance. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • drawl|y — «DR lee», adjective. of the nature of a drawl; characterized by drawing: »a drawly dialect …   Useful english dictionary

  • drawl — (v.) 1590s, perhaps from M.Du. dralen, E.Fris. draulen to linger, delay, apparently an intensive of the root of DRAW (Cf. draw). Or else a native formation along the same lines. Related: Drawled; drawling. As a noun from 1760 …   Etymology dictionary

  • drawl — [v] lengthen, draw out chant, drag out, drone, extend, intone, nasalize, prolong, pronounce slowly, protract, utter; concepts 77,239 Ant. clip, shorten …   New thesaurus

  • drawl — ► VERB ▪ speak in a slow, lazy way with prolonged vowel sounds. ► NOUN ▪ a drawling accent. ORIGIN from Low German or Dutch dralen delay, linger …   English terms dictionary

  • drawl — [drôl] vt., vi. [prob. freq. of DRAW] to speak slowly, prolonging the vowels n. a slow manner of speech characterized by prolongation of vowels drawler n. drawlingly adv …   English World dictionary

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”