mid-rift

[Benjamin Fortson]

This is like the regional (?) pronunciation of "riff" (as in music) as
"rift". Perhaps ultimately the same phenomenon as the addition of -t to
final fricatives in words like oncet and twicet, or (in German) Obst, Axt,
sonst, (regional) Senft (for Senf 'mustard'), etc.

Ben

On Wed, 27 Feb 2002, Kim & Rima McKinzey wrote:

> In today's SF Chronicle, in a sad story about a 17 year old girl who
> is missing, there is a quote from the girl's uncle quoting a
> witnesses observation:
>
> "He described the red mid-rift shirt she was wearing."
>
> A new one on me, unless this is simply a mistake and he meant midriff.
>
> Rima
>