Re: AmE just solution/gist in time

On 25 Jun 2007 13:36:30 -0400, hrubin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Herman
Rubin) wrote:

In article <de1v73lp673359n49qu2b30gs0jnaqv8qj@xxxxxxx>,
John Swindle <jcswindle@xxxxxxx> wrote:
The American English of my childhood had two different pronounciations
for "just" with different meanings. I can't find the distinction in a
quick look at a couple of dictionaries. Does it have a known
geographic distribution? Is there anything interesting to be said
about its origin or history?

In Kansas of fifty years ago, if I remember correctly, the "just" in
"just a minute" or "just right" sounded like "gist," whereas the
"just" in "a just solution" rhymed with "must." Pronouncing the first
to rhyme with "must" would have been bookish, although making the
distinction was part of learning to read, and pronoucing it like
"jest" would have been countrified.

I do not recall ever having heard "just" with either of these
two pronunciations, unless you mean the noun "must" instead of
the verbal modifier. To clarify things, the sound is as that
of "mustard" or "bustard".

I hear no difference in the vowels of "must" and "just" when they're
rhymed in the last verse of the US national anthem:

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, and this be our
motto: "In God is our trust". . . .

My other "just," with its different set of meanings, sounded different
from those. I don't think we distinguished pin/pen, bin/Ben/been,
him/hem, gym/gem, and so on, so maybe the language gods gave us the
distinction between "just" and "just" as a consolation prize.
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Calculator
    ... In my experience, these meanings of the ... If an optimizer sees two calls to a pure function with the ... Neither Pascal nor C makes any language-level distinction between ... Note that the distinction involves side effects and global variables. ...
    (comp.lang.c)
  • Re: What is a logical contradiction?
    ... Nowhere in the thread was there any overt ... to logical equivalence) of representing the meanings of these statements ... so in that rather restricted sense they ... that there are classical logical frameworks in which that distinction is ...
    (sci.logic)
  • Re: Expressiveness
    ... suspicion that the fine distinctions of meanings are not being lost by the ... sloppy language community but invented by hair-splitting language mavens. ... consensus among the speakers about the distinction of meanings. ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: [64-bit Delphi] A msg from Hairy (van Tassel)
    ... Luk Vermeulen <Arf> wrote in message ... > Since one of the meanings of distinction is difference and vice versa, ... Posted with JSNewsreader-BETA 0.9.4.441 ...
    (borland.public.delphi.non-technical)
  • Re: Is classless worth consideration
    ... > distinction between array and dictionary. ... In thinking about dictionaries versus modules, ... > Modules are an encapsulation mechanism, just like class instances, so ... The particular features of the module type are dual. ...
    (comp.lang.python)