Re: A question for a news article

[AAllan at AOL.COM]

Dear Steve,
   Very interesting question. You have noticed a phenomenon that I don't
think has been discussed by our group before, and that I don't have any
special expertise for. Let me suggest you get in touch with Professor John
Baugh in the School of Education at Stanford,
jbaugh at stanford.edu
who is a former president of our American Dialect Society, who is
African-American himself, and who has quite a dialect repertoire of his own.
He's friendly and likely to give you in-depth authoritative comments.
   If he's not available, let me know and I'll try to think of someone else.
Best wishes - Allan Metcalf
Executive Secretary, American Dialect Society