"Obsolete," but still in use

[Wilson Gray]

Lafayette, LA?! That's the birthplace of my least-favorite ex-girl
friend. She wouldn't even give me my records back! OTOH, she
occasionally would say things like, "I really like that, me." Until I
heard her use formations like this, I had assumed that only white
Louisiana Cajuns used such locutions in English. I assume that this
was a feature of her native dialect, whose use she avoided as
assiduously as I avoided using my native East-Texas dialect. (This was
in Los Angeles and neither of us wanted to sound "fresh off the bus.")
Whenever she slipped up and used such phraseology, she always seemed
quite embarrassed, though I thought it was pretty cool. That should
been a clue that the relatiionship was goiing to end badly, I guess.

-Wilson

On 9/21/06, Clai Rice <cxr1086 at louisiana.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Clai Rice <cxr1086 at LOUISIANA.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "Obsolete," but still in use
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Here in Lafayette, LA, people like to use the honorific with the first
> name without regard to gender, so I am regularly referred to as either
> Mr. Clai or Dr. Clai, and my wife is usually Miss Lydia, and has
> recently graduated to Dr. Lydia.  Our (Episcopal) priest, Morgan Allen,
> is Rev. Morgan or Fr. Morgan, and my dentist is Dr. Bill. My students
> agree that Mr. or Miss. with the first name is normal and respectful
> usage, and most think that both uses are peculiarly Cajun.
>
> Clai Rice
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Bethany K. Dumas [mailto:dumasb at UTKUX.UTCC.UTK.EDU]
> > Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 6:50 PM
> > Subject: Re: "Obsolete," but still in use
> >
> >
> > On Wed, 20 Sep 2006, Wilson Gray wrote:
> > >I bleeve y'all done missed a impawtant change. Nowadays, it doesn't
> > >matter, at least in my experience and what I hear from relatives,
> > >whether the woman or the speaker be black or white. Innih
> > ladih be cawl
> > >"Miss [First name]" by innihbidih ales. Nothing's perfect
> > anywhere, of
> > >course, but I like to give credit where credit is due: 2006 is not
> > >1946.
> >
> > D'accord. When I taught at Southern University (off and on
> > 1967-1972), I was first known by staff (yes, they were all
> > black - I was one of about four whites on campus) as "Miss
> > Bethany." I finished my Ph.D. while living abroad, then
> > returned to teach at Southern 1971-72. I wondered how I would
> > be addressed - there were not a lot of Ph.D.s at SU then.
> >
> > I should have been able to figure it out - I became "Doctor Bethany."
> >
> > Bethany
> >
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


--
Everybody says, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange
complaint to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
Whoever has lived long enough to find out what life is knows how deep
a debt of gratitude we owe to Adam, the first great benefactor of our
race. He brought death into the world.

--Sam Clemens

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