My dissertation, in double-dactyl form

[dr_whom]

Gloversville, Utica,
Syracuse, Watertown—
Where can we find phono-
logical change?
Settlement patterns from
1805 explain
Dialectology;
Isn't that strange?

Amsterdam, Absterdab,
Modular feedforward
Sound-pattern theory
Lets you believe
Nasal short-a system
Discontinuity
Makes Northern Cities Shift
Hard to achieve.

Augdensburg, Ahgdensburg,
William Labov, Sharon
Ash, & Charles Boberg told
Us what they thought:
'Northern phonology
Blocks the low back merger's
Eligibility.'
But it does not!

Plattsburgh to Buffalo,
Interview evidence
Shows us that fieldworkers
Ought to be wary:
Characteristically,
Upstate New Yorkers pro-
nounce documentary
"Dòcuméntàry".

(idea from _mycroft_holmes)

Comments

[qnmark.livejournal.com]

:( at the not/thought rhyme.

[dr_whom]

It was thematically necessary!

[midnight-sidhe.livejournal.com]

I am now wishing that your dissertation defence had begun with you reciting this as a prologue, because that would have been absolutely fabulous.

[dr_whom]

Awww. Thanks. But that would have given away the ending!

Can you do one? "Morphosyntactical" and "unidirectional" are useful words. (To stretch a point, "affixogenesis" could also work.)

[midnight-sidhe.livejournal.com]

That's sort of the time-honoured tradition of Shakespearean prologues, right?

I don't know... this is really emphatically not my forte.

[dr_whom]

I bet you've got it in you! No pressure though. If I think of a good one for your dissertation I'll let you know.

There aren't that many Shakespearean prologues, but I take your point. Perhaps that should be a standard part of dissertation defenses.

[http://users.livejournal.com/-mycroft-holmes/]

Hooray!
I need to go back now and shoehorn six-syllable words into my first two.
Also, I think that replacing the abstracts in journal articles with poems could totally be a thing.

[dr_whom]

It would make me more likely to read abstracts, I'm pretty sure.

[picklepikkl.livejournal.com]

:D :D :D

[cyanfox.livejournal.com]

🌈 Absolutely Fascinating
🏳️‍🌈 I love your wordplay