Knowing one's ass from one's elbow

[Tom Zurinskas]

Let's not make elbows of ourselves.

All I said was that the word "slang" AS SPOKEN ON M-W.COM has a long a
sound, not a short a sound as does the word "slant".  This IS a recording
you can actually hear at m-w.com.  I have no clue what you and Bev are
talking about below.

Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL4+
See truespel.com and the 4 truespel books at authorhouse.com.



>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       "Mark A. Mandel" <mamandel at LDC.UPENN.EDU>
>Subject:      Knowing one's ass from one's elbow
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Re: slang/slant, "Paul A Johnston, Jr." <paul.johnston at WMICH.EDU> replies
>to
>Tom Zurinskas:
>  >>>
>  And you've just come out with a regionalism--and one that is NOT
>traditional in American dictionaries.  My students will love you for it,
>though.
>  <<<
>
>
>Re: Can some native USA English speakers say "awe" or not, Wilson sez:
>  >>>
>  I may be out of step with the rest of mankind, but my own experience
>is that a merger can not be automatically undone just because you feel
>like it.
>  <<<
>
>
>Re: slang/slant, Bev asks:
>  >>>
>  If you "find it very hard to say 'slang' with a short a" (IPA /ae/), why
>do
>you insist that m-w's notation "should be short a"? Since dictionaries
>purport to represent "real" pronunciation, isn't your argument quite
>illogical?
>  <<<
>
>
>Given Mr. Zurinskas's record of analyzing what he hears (e.g., on m-w.com)
>quite differently from any of us here who have had training in phonetics, I
>wouldn't trust his report of this purported new-found regionalism without
>at
>least hearing a recording.
>
>Is it not plain by now that Mr. Zurinskas Knows The Truth and nothing we
>say
>will penetrate his impervious shield? See my previous post and compare.
>
>(BTW, listening to m-w.com's pronunciation of "slang" led me to their
>definition:
>
>1 : language peculiar to a particular group: as a : ARGOT b : JARGON 2
>2 : an informal nonstandard vocabulary composed typically of coinages,
>arbitrarily changed words, and extravagant, forced, or facetious figures of
>speech
>
>My!)
>
>m a m
>
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