"southernisms"

[Dennis R. Preston]

Alas, Ellen, he is a USIA actor, not a real person at all.

dInIs


>funny this should show up in the Atl Journal-Constitution's anonymously
>called in "Vent" section this week.  did one of you submit it?
>
>"Favorite 'you-can't-get-more-Southern-than-this' Southernism:  'tumped
>over' --- 'I reached to get my beer and accidentally tumped it over.'"
>
>Also, something that people around here think is a "southernism" but I
>suspect it is widespread.  I heard it commented on this week and saw it
>on a sign at a Taco Bell:
>
>Jeet chet?
>Yont to?
>
>[yont rhymes with won't, of course]  is anybody besides me a fan of the
>very definitely dated video from our own Preston and Shuy on varieties
>of am eng?  well, a fan of some parts of it anyway, esp this section on
>style.  every time I hear a comment on jeet chet I think of that guy
>(who also did a skit of middle-aged hopelessly uncool dude trying to be
>hip by using slang, who is he anyway? dInIs?)
>
>Ellen Johnson
>Assistant Professor of Linguistics
>Dept. of English, Rhetoric, and Writing
>Berry College, Box 350
>Mt. Berry, GA 30149
>706-368-5638
>http://fsweb.berry.edu/academic/hass/ejohnson/
>ejohnson at berry.edu

--
Dennis R. Preston
Department of Linguistics and Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
preston at pilot.msu.edu
Office: (517)353-0740
Fax: (517)432-2736