dialect in novels

[Dennis R. Preston]

>Natalie,

I'm always yukkin it up up here to Michigan when they call them
little critters crayfish.

dInIs



>Bob Haas wrote:
>
>>  But vittles and chitlins--chitlins especially--seem to me to be different
>>  words from their more traditional forebears, victuals and chitterlings.
>>  I've heard chitlins all my life, but nary a chitterling.
>
>I'd say chitterlings are to chitlins as crayfish to crawfish.  I've seen
>the spellings chitterlings and crayfish, but I've never heard anybody
>talk about eating them.  People eat chitlins and crawfish -- at least
>in the South.  (I learned on another list a few years ago that some
>Yankees say "crayfish."  I told them that saying that in a restaurant
>around here would result in either incomprehension or laughter.
>    --Natalie Maynor (maynor at ra.msstate.edu)

--
Dennis R. Preston
Department of Linguistics and Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
preston at pilot.msu.edu
Office: (517)353-0740
Fax: (517)432-2736