Two questions--myself and flush out

[Dennis R. Preston]

The vowel of "flesh" moving to that of "flush" is a late stage of the
Northern Cities Shift. Not surprising in Cleveland (with no need for
Valley Girl interpretation).

dInIs


>My son and I noticed ten years ago that the vowels in "flesh" and "flush"
>(in any context followed by a voiceless consonant) seemed to be merging in
>the mouths of teenage suburban girls in the Cleveland area.  We thought of
>it as Valley Girl talk.
>
>--Charles Wells
>
>>I have recently noticed two different usages that I'd
>>like to know more about. The first is the use of
>>"myself" in place of both "me" and "I".
>>
>>Ex.
>>
>>1. Send the document to Bob and myself.
>>2. Bob and myself will be heading up the meeting.
>>
>>I thought it might be a way of avoiding the conundrum
>>of rembering which pronoun to use. However, I have no
>>idea if there is a long history to this usage or not,
>>so if anyone has any info on this, I'd appreciate it.
>>
>>The second is the term "flush out" to mean "flesh
>>out".    I heard fairly often at my work, and assumed
>>it was some sort of mispronunciation that's going
>>around. I was very surprised to see it in print in The
>>Ten-Day MBA by Steven Silberger: p. 20 "The following
>>questions help to flush that out."  Any
>>thoughts/history on this one?
>>
>>Thanks!
>>
>>Ed Keer
>>
>>__________________________________________________
>>Do You Yahoo!?
>>Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup
>>http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com
>
>
>
>Charles Wells
>professional website: http://www.cwru.edu/artsci/math/wells/home.html
>personal website: http://www.oberlin.net/~cwells/index.html
>genealogical website:
>http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/w/e/l/Charles-Wells/
>NE Ohio Sacred Harp website: http://www.oberlin.net/~cwells/sh.htm

--
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