Exposure to language

[Baker, John]

        According to Pissing in the Snow, the farmer was making a bad joke, one that made even guests who weren't too particular get queasy.

John Baker

-----Original Message-----
From: Beverly Flanigan [mailto:flanigan at OHIOU.EDU]
Sent: Monday, December 16, 2002 4:49 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Exposure to language

And that's partially why I don't buy  Doug Wilson's speculation that my
parents (and others in my speech community) were cleverly reversing 'shit'
to 'tish' and then voicing to 'dish'--they were smart but not that
clever!  Nor can I believe Randolph's farmer would have used a cloth for
washing dishes on his baby's rear end; I suspect his community used 'dish'
in the same way mine did, and that the visitors were horrified because they
didn't share that dual usage!