latticework

[Ronald Butters]

On Oct 14, 2011, at 11:19 AM, Joel S. Berson wrote:

> Perhaps he knew a young woman named Latisha.

This would make sense if he had never seen "lattice" spelled, and perhaps if he thought that his acquaintance Latisha was a piece of work.

Seems more likely that he thought that "lattice" was a French word that should be pronounced like "Maurice." The influence of the pronunciation of French names on AAVE is not generally thought to be important--and, as reported, the janitor in question was difficult to identify as a speaker of AAVE--he just happened to have one or more of the physical traits that are commonly associated with the descendants of former slaves.

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