Mommanem

[Wilson Gray]

Geoff, you may remember the guy that I'm talking about, since you were
at the '71 Summer LSA, too. His name was Robert Cohen (yes, yes, I
realize that that's a highly unusual name for a nice Jewish boy) and
his girlfriend, who was also at the Institute, was named Joan
Tenenbaum. They were students at Columbia and buddies of my roommate,
Phil Schwartz. He was about as tall as I am, as slender as I was, in
those days of our lost youth, with curly black hair, and he always
wore glasses, a T-shirt, Levi's, and Fry boots.

-Wilson

On 1/26/08, Geoff Nathan <geoffnathan at wayne.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Geoff Nathan <geoffnathan at WAYNE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Mommanem
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Larry wrote:
>
> > "Mommanem" etc. is a shibboleth of Pittsburghese.
> > I've never heard (or rather noticed) it in New
> > York, among Jewish speakers or others, but as I
> > recall Bryan Gick and other dialectologists from
> > Pittsburgh have confirmed it's real (along with
> > the "yinz" second person plural).
> In the fifties and sixties in Toronto the /- at nEm/ suffix was also frequent
>
> A:  So, who went to the game?
> B:  Oh, John-and-them (i.e. /dZan at nEm/ )
>
> Geoff
>
> --
> Geoffrey S. Nathan <geoffnathan at wayne.edu>
>
> Faculty Liaison, Computing and Information Technology,
> and Associate Professor of English, Linguistics Program
> Phone Numbers (313) 577-1259 or (313) 577-8621
> Wayne State University
> Detroit, MI, 48202
>
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