A-prefixing (was First Names)

[Dennis R. Preston]

>I don't reckon so; they both sound dandy to me.

dInIs



>At 9:01 PM -0400 4/13/02, Dennis R. Preston wrote:
>>>So long as the consonantal realization of /h/ is strong (probably
>>>realized as significant high frequency features acoustically), there
>>>should be no restriction.
>>
>>dInIs
>
>I was (a-)wonderin' if there might be a semantic dimension here.
>Granted I'm no more to the manner born and bred than Herb (below),
>but it strikes me that "a-havin' a baby" (I have to "drop the -g" to
>avoid register clash with A-prefixing) or in
>
>"Joe-Bob is a-havin' a hootenanny tonight"
>
>is more likely than, say,
>
>"I'm a-havin' second thoughts about buyin' that pick-up"
>
>I won't even try to guess at the relevant parameters, because these
>judgments are so speculative.
>
>>
>>
>>
>>>In a message dated 4/13/2002 6:32:13 AM, preston at PILOT.MSU.EDU writes:
>>>
>>><< "the missus was a-having a baby." >>
>>>
>>>Is A-prefixing really permitted with HAVE? Sounds unnatural to me, but then
>>>we didn't have much a-prefixing at all in east-central Iowa.

--
Dennis R. Preston
Professor of Linguistics
Department of Linguistics and Languages
740 Wells Hall A
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1027 USA
Office - (517) 353-0740
Fax - (517) 432-2736