[Ads-l] Dialect clash

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Mon Feb 5 04:08:05 UTC 2018


> On Feb 4, 2018, at 10:50 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> Back ib the '50's, I heard a new, R&B instrumental jam that the DJ called
> "Blue Cinder." Not only did I like the tunemusic, but I was also much
> intrigued by the title. A cinder is usually grey, though I could easily
> feature a very hot cinder as glowing more or less red. But, under what
> circumstance would a cinder be *blue*? What could the composer have been
> thinking of that he would conceive of a cinder as "blue"? What could have
> happened in his life that he would picture in his mind a cinder that was
> _blue_? It was downright Dali-esque.
> 
> Anyway, I went down to Joe's Music Shop and bought a copy. When I got back
> home, opened the package, and pulled out the record, I was much
> disappointed to discover that the title of the song was, in fact, the very
> ordinary and mundane "Blue Sender."
> 
> Youneverknow.
> 
> IAC, I was somewhat mollified by the thought that, though the composer had
> _written_ "sender," he very likely would have _said_ "cinder." Besides,
> most readers of a certain age will recall a song by Elvis from the same
> time: "Return to Cinder.”
> 
Yup, Return to cinder, address unknown = Ashes to Ashes.  (One of Elvis’s gospel numbers, obviously.)

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



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