wheel barrel

[Laurence Horn]

At 11:43 AM -0500 2/27/08, Wilson Gray wrote:
>Exactly so.
>
>Sometimes, a name can be popular in one area and unknown in another.
>The original "Wilson" was my father, a native of Alabama, where
>"Wilson" is a common name, who moved to Texas after he met my mother.
>A couple of other Alabama Wilsons are Wilson Baker of Selma fame and
>Wilson Pickett, the soul singer. The only other first-name Wilson that
>I've ever met, other than my father, was a guy named Wilson Cohen that
>I once met at a party in Sacramento.
>
>Names ending in "-son" are quite popular in Brazil (remember Edison
>Arantes?) Once, I was watching the credits roll at the end of a
>Brazilian movie, when I saw, "Wilson Grei ... Flunky." Oh, well.
>
>-Wilson

Not just Brazil; I think Wilson itself is relatively robust in Latin
America as a first name.  Besides Wilson Betamit, an infielder for
the Yankees last year, there are various other Wilsons I know I've
come across in the sports pages, although I can't think of their
identities right now, and they may all have been Latin Americans
(including those from the Caribbean area).  Maybe Woodrow W. had a
big impact down there, and they're still perpetuating it?

LH

>
>On 2/26/08, Dennis Preston <preston at msu.edu> wrote:
>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>   Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>
>>  Poster:       Dennis Preston <preston at MSU.EDU>
>>   Subject:      Re: wheel barrel
>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>
>>  I think Wilson's point is that this hypercorrection in unfamiliar
>>   words, or, perhaps, better, ones which the speakers would not know
>>   how to classify into the /hw/ versus /w/ set (assuming they were not
>>   native speakers of the distinction). Such hypercorrection is very
>>   reasonable for the period Wilson describes; I member kids from the
>>   40s ourside my home area (where we were all /hw/ers) telling me that
>>   their teachers tried to provide them with the distinction, and when I
>>   was in the third grade I member us little lowland hillbillies'
>>   amazement at seeing it in a guide to good English. We done had it.
>>   What a shock fer us at ns. We was good talkers after all.
>>
>>   dInIs
>>
>>
>>   >---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>   >-----------------------
>>   >Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>   >Poster:       Mark Mandel <thnidu at GMAIL.COM>
>>   >Subject:      Re: wheel barrel
>>
>>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>   >
>>   >Hm. Are all initial /w/s devoiced?
>>   >
>>   >On Mon, Feb 25, 2008 at 10:00 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>>   >
>>   >>  FWIW, in East-Texas middle-class BE, "wheel barrel" is the standard
>>   >>  "correction" of local [hwi at l bae@]. Also, "Wilson" being a very rare
>>   >>  name locally, the locals always call me by the hypercorrected
>>   >>  [hwi at ls@n] instead of *[wi at ls@n]. I've never liked my name, so I kinda
>>   >>  dug being "Wheelson."
>>   >>
>>   >>  -Wilson
>>   >>
>>   >
>>   >--
>>   >Mark Mandel
>>   >
>>   >------------------------------------------------------------
>>   >The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>>
>>
>>  --
>>   Dennis R. Preston
>>   University Distinguished Professor
>>   Department of English
>>   Morrill Hall 15-C
>>   Michigan State University
>>   East Lansing, MI 48864 USA
>>
>>   ------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>  The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
>
>--
>All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
>come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>-----
>                                               -Sam'l Clemens
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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