"southernisms"

[Beverly Flanigan]

Expand that "laziness" to cover the whole country--and perhaps the entire
English-speaking world.  And we DO know what the words mean, Linda.

  BTW, "yont" would be closer to (some) Southern US English "do you want"
than "yant" would, if I'm not mistaken.

At 02:42 PM 12/7/01 -0600, you wrote:
>Indeed, it is lazy in the same way that some lazy people compress bacon,
>lettuce, and tomato between slices of bread rather than enjoying them as
>distinct tastes. I think they do that in Missouri as well (well probably just
>southern Missouri).
>
>Linda Sparlin wrote:
>
> > Is not "tump" simply a blend of "turn" and "dump"?  As in "...turned it
> > over" or "...dumped it over" ?
> >
> > And I have to disagree slightly with the pronunciation of "Jeet chet?" and
> > "Yont to?"  "Yont" rhymes with "want," not "won't."  It's simply lazy
> > enunciation, rushed/compressed into fewer distinct sounds,
> meaning  "Did you
> > eat yet?" and "Do you want to?" in all of MO, OK, KS, IL, as far east as
> > Cleveland (my only experience.)
> >
> > Haven't read the whole string - so my apologies if this has already been
> > suggested.
> >
> > Linda
>
>Linda Sparlin wrote:
>
> > Is not "tump" simply a blend of "turn" and "dump"?  As in "...turned it
> > over" or "...dumped it over" ?
> >
> > And I have to disagree slightly with the pronunciation of "Jeet chet?" and
> > "Yont to?"  "Yont" rhymes with "want," not "won't."  It's simply lazy
> > enunciation, rushed/compressed into fewer distinct sounds,
> meaning  "Did you
> > eat yet?" and "Do you want to?" in all of MO, OK, KS, IL, as far east as
> > Cleveland (my only experience.)
> >
> > Haven't read the whole string - so my apologies if this has already been
> > suggested.
> >
> > Linda
> > _____________________
> >
> > ...funny this should show up in the Atl Journal-Constitution's anonymously
> > called in "Vent" section this week.  did one of you submit it?
> >
> > "Favorite 'you-can't-get-more-Southern-than-this' Southernism:  'tumped
> > over' --- 'I reached to get my beer and accidentally tumped it over.'"
> >
> > Also, something that people around here think is a "southernism" but I
> > suspect it is widespread.  I heard it commented on this week and saw it
> > on a sign at a Taco Bell:
> >
> > Jeet chet?
> > Yont to?
> >
> > [yont rhymes with won't, of course]  is anybody besides me a fan of the
> > very definitely dated video from our own Preston and Shuy on varieties
> > of am eng?  well, a fan of some parts of it anyway, esp this section on
> > style.  every time I hear a comment on jeet chet I think of that guy
> > (who also did a skit of middle-aged hopelessly uncool dude trying to be
> > hip by using slang, who is he anyway? dInIs?)
> >
> > Ellen Johnson
> > Assistant Professor of Linguistics
> > Dept. of English, Rhetoric, and Writing
> > Berry College, Box 350
> > Mt. Berry, GA 30149
> > 706-368-5638
> > http://fsweb.berry.edu/academic/hass/ejohnson/
> > ejohnson at berry.edu


_____________________________________________
Beverly Olson Flanigan         Department of Linguistics
Ohio University                     Athens, OH  45701
Ph.: (740) 593-4568              Fax: (740) 593-2967
http://www.cats.ohiou.edu/linguistics/dept/flanigan.htm