dialect in novels

[Herb Stahlke]

I ate crawdads, not crawfish, when I lived in Georgia.  Anything
else would stick in the cray.

Herb

<<< maynor at CS.MSSTATE.EDU  2/24 12:30p >>>
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)