"Eerian": Detroit Polish/Italian contact vernacular

[Mark.Mandel at LHSL.COM]

(Quoting full history because of the two-week delay.)

On Nov. 13 I wrote:

>>> BEGIN QUOTE >>>

In an off-topic discussion of accents on a newsgroup I follow,
rec.music.filk, another participant (bcc'ed on this posting) posted:

>>>
    Want to hear a really weird one?  My college roommate, in Michigan,
came
from a part of Detroit occupied by recent immigrants from Poland and Italy.
Between them, they put together a weird Polish/Italian mix which they
called
"Eerian".  Why?  "Bicause dat's what we spik in dis eeria."
<<<

I asked her permission to pass it on to this list, and she replied:

>>>
         Sure thing.  This was spoken in the poor Italian/Polish
neighborhood of Detroit during the early 1960s.  I heard it spoken a couple
of times, and it sounded oddly poetic -- rather like Romansch, although the
meanings were totally different.  There may still be some Eerian speakers
in that part of Detroit, if you can find them.
<<<

N.B. that this "Eerian" isn't the accent suggested in the quote but a
contact vernacular. The obvious interpretation of the name -- < [Lake] Erie
-- is probably the real etymology, with the "explanation" a post-facto
joke.

<<< END QUOTE <<<



Doug Wilson then asked:
===>>>
What part of Detroit, please? I was a Detroit boy once. Maybe I know
Eerian.

Lake Erie isn't really adjacent to Detroit, and I don't know that it would
be a likely source of the name. I wonder ....
<<<===



The original correspondent has now answered:
===>>>
         It was East Detroit, as far as I can remember -- near an old
(pre-Mall) shopping center called "Eastland".  'Twas a Polish/Italian
neighborhood at the time ('60s), which is all I know.
<<<===



                  Mark A. Mandel : Senior Linguist
 Dragon Systems, a Lernout & Hauspie company : speech recognition
 320 Nevada St., Newton, MA 02460, USA : http://www.dragonsys.com