crick

[Beverly Flanigan]

"Correction" came to be very common in the '50s and after (and even
before?), so much so that I too changed to [krik] upon moving to the big
city (Minneapolis) from the country.  Now that I'm in the country again (SE
Ohio), I find the prestige distinction here too.  This area, as I noted in
an earlier posting, has both 'creek' and 'crick', but "educated" people
won't admit to the latter.


At 11:56 AM 10/26/99 -0700, you wrote:
>Well, that's what I get for wasting my youth in the city. I also rarely
>hear crick for creek here in Washington--but then again, I'm in Seattle.
>Eastern Washington might be a completely different matter.
>I do remember that, in school (in Portland 1950s), people who said crick
>were "corrected", and that many of my classmates were recent arrivals to
>Oregon.
>
>Allen
>maberry at u.washington.edu
>
>
>On Tue, 26 Oct 1999, Peter McGraw wrote:
>
> > [Reply to a message from Allen Maberry, which came to me instead of to
> > the list.]
> >
> > My "informants" were definitely native Oregonians and "country folks,"
> > including my cousins, who had never been outside of Oregon and whose
> > mother had been out of the state only once in her lifetime.
> >
> > On Tue, 26 Oct 1999 09:19:16 -0700 (PDT) "A. Maberry"
> > <maberry at u.washington.edu> wrote:
> >
> > > Well, I guess I probably heard it even in the gentrified atmosphere of
> > > Portland. But, as I recall most of the people I heard use it were not
> > > native Oregonians but had come from the midwest. Back in the 50s and 60s
> > > in Oregon one could hear about anything. In fact as late as 1969 I worked
> > > with a bunch of people from Baker (now Baker City) and I swear I couldn't
> > > distinguish their dialect from the ones I'd heard from Arkansas.
> > >
> > > Allen
> > >
> > > On Tue, 26 Oct 1999, Peter McGraw wrote:
> > >
> > > > You mean you never heard "crick" for 'small stream' in the Northwest,
> > > > Allen? Well, but you grew up in the city, right?
> > > >
> > > > When we moved from urban Southern California to rural Oregon in the
> > > > 1950s, the "crick" pronunciation was for me one of the features that
> > > > distinguished the local speech from my own.  But it was packaged with
> > > > -in' [In] for -ing and other ruralisms that I wouldn't have expected
> > > to > hear in Portland. I suppose I had been exposed to the word only in
> > > > writing up till then, since the place I had come from had no small >
> > > watercourses, at least not with water in them. >
> > > > Peter Mc. >
> > > > On Mon, 25 Oct 1999 18:34:52 -0700 "A. Maberry" >
> > > <maberry at U.WASHINGTON.EDU> wrote: >
> > > > > On Mon, 25 Oct 1999, Pafra & Scott Catledge wrote: > >
> > > > > > In the Deep South, a creek or a brook is for wading/bathing > > >
> > > in--a [crick] (spelling unknown) is what you get in your neck if > > >
> > > you keep it in a position to which you are unaccustomed.  I > > > have
> > > heard Nawtheners --I'll be PC and not use the little 'd' > > > word
> > > ;{)--say "crick" in the sense of "brook." > >
> > > > > That is certainly my understanding of the creek/crick distinction,
> > > and > > I'm about as far north as you can get without leaving the
> > > country. Up > > here "brook" is not used for streams at all, although
> > > the names of many > > recent housing developments in the area would
> > > make one think otherwise > > (usually spelled "brooke".
> > > > > > > Allen
> > > > > maberry at u.washington.edu >
> > > > ---------------------- > Peter A. McGraw
> > > > Linfield College > McMinnville, Oregon
> > > > pmcgraw at linfield.edu >
> > >
> >
> > ----------------------
> > Peter A. McGraw
> > Linfield College
> > McMinnville, Oregon
> > pmcgraw at linfield.edu
> >
> >