accusative cursing

[Laurence Horn]

At 9:25 PM -0400 4/10/07, James C Stalker wrote:
>Laurence Horn writes:
>
>>
>>a.k.a. "nekkid"?
>>
>If you wish, but since it isn't a real word, who cares about the spelling?

Not a real word?  "nekkid" has 822,000 raw google hits.  That doesn't
necessarily make it a real word, but it does seem to suggest it's a
real semi-standardized variant of one (cf. "purty", "nucular").  We
need the double -k- in "nekkid" (rather than spelling it "nekid") to
denote ['nEkId] rather than either ['nE(y)kId] (= the standard
pronunciation of "naked") or ['nIkId] (the standard pronounciation of
"knee-kid").

LH

>In part, I josh, but not wholly.  Are there conventional spellings for
>conventionally unacceptable pronunciations in unacceptable dialects, except
>maybe in DARE?  Why do we need the double k?  As with Wilson, musings rather
>than real questions.
>
>JCS
>
>
>
>James C. Stalker
>Department of English
>Michigan State University
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org