Schontz, Shonce

[Grant Barrett]

On Monday, January 10, 2000, Grant Barrett <gbarrett at AMERICANDIALECT.ORG> wrote:
>This came in as a submission to the ADS web site.
>notes = schontz: this word has for many years circulated in small but mobile
circles
>in the american southeast as a substitute for the words "here" and "there".
>pronounced "shonce"

I should like to point out that I received three separate emails, apparently from
the same person although from different addresses, regarding this supposed usage. I am
now suspicious. It appears as if someone is trying to perpetrate the word.

What is it, somebody please tell me, that makes people invent words just to see if
they can make them stick, claim coinages that aren't theirs, and cram pet and catch
phrases into conversation and written communication as if they're geniuses for
repeating something over and over?

Aaagh. Ugh.