Dawgs

[Jonathan Lighter]

When I say "dawg" it sounds very different from when a Georgian says "dawg," even though they're spelled the same.

  To show they're not pronounced "dog."

  JL

  JL

Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Charles Doyle
Subject: Dawgs
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I went to a football game this past weekend, the University of Georgia vs. Mississippi State. Each university has for its totem the bulldog. Each university features its team as the "Dawgs"; the University of Georgia (at least) has been doing so for many years.

It wasn't much of a game, so I had time to wonder about that spelling in a region where "dawg" represents what has been the traditional pronunciation anyway--with that "open o" that dialects of many regions are losing apace. Among (old-fashioned) "Southern" speakers, the "dog"/"dawg" distinction would be simply orthographic (like "come"/"cum"). But what about the semantics? Is it (or was it when it originated) merely a playful bit of self-conscious eye-dialect?

Or, is the spelling something like a Confederate battle flag to be waved into the face of non-Southerners? Or perhaps it simply suggests "tradition" for fans of the University of Georgia (I don't know about MSU), whose campus is now prevalently populated by first- and second-generation /dag/-speaking Northern immigrants?

Is it because we lost that war 140 years ago that Southerners have been so absorbed, obsessed with issues of our regional identity? A mom-and-pop restaurant in a small Georgia town will advertise its "Southern cooking," as if that weren't the default . . . .

Oh, yes, the Dawgs won the game. Barely.

--Charlie

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