Another "$100 Misunderstanding" (1)

[Wilson Gray]

On Aug 13, 2004, at 5:25 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Another "$100 Misunderstanding" (1)
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> That's "Cletus the Slack-Jawed Yokel."

I stand corrected.

>   BTW, I say "shat"

I, too. I've never bothered to give up the habit that I picked up in
the Army.

>  and "ahnvelope."

Of course. Doesn't everyone?

>   Did I mention "tuhmahto"?

Sigh! Here I must admit that I deviate. But some Yanks say "tuhmahto,"
too! There is some evidence of civilization in the colonies.

-Wilson


>
> JL
>
> Wilson Gray <hwgray at EARTHLINK.NET> wrote:
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> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Wilson Gray
> Subject: Re: Another "$100 Misunderstanding" (1)
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> On Aug 13, 2004, at 3:30 PM, Bethany K. Dumas wrote:
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>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>> Poster: "Bethany K. Dumas"
>> Subject: Re: Another "$100 Misunderstanding" (1)
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>>> is clearly the preferred - by me, any way - pronunciation.;-) BTW, my
>>> late stepfather, a native of Saint louis, though of Arkansas
>>> ancestry,
>>> made this odd distinction in his speech: noun = "IN veh lup"; verb =
>>> "in VEH lup." Of course, there's nothing of interest in his verb
>>> form.
>>> But I've always felt that he was the only English-speaker on earth or
>>> in Saint Louis, at least, to use that peculiar pronunciation of the
>>> noun. And it's also odd that he was able to resist all his life the
>>> pressure to switch to one or the other of the "correct"
>>> pronunciations.
>>
>> Is joke?
>>
>> Bethany
>>
>
> I don't think so. My stepdad *was* the only person that I've ever known
> who pronounced the noun "envelope" as IN veh lup. Or are you referring
> to his ability to stand alone, unique in his IN veh lup-ness? In Saint
> Louis, people made me feel like I was Cletus the Buck-Toothed Yokel
> till I was able to dump my East-Texas accent. Likewise, on visits back
> to Texas, the locals literally laughed at my Saint Louis accent. After
> I moved to L.A., Angelenos, black as well as white, continually asked
> me to repeat myself. They said that I didn't enunciate clearly and that
> they had a problem with my "mumbling" style of speech. So, I know from
> personal experience that people who don't meet local norms are
> pressured to conform.
>
> FWIW, even St. Louisans are aware of the "mumbling" phenomenon. The St.
> Louis Post-Dispatch once referred to it as a "river-bottom throb."
> Clark Terry, jazz musician and St, Louisan, once made a record called
> "Mumblin,'" which was inspired by the phenomenon of the same name.
>
> Since I doubt that you could find either of these assertions
> remarkable, I guess that my answer has to be, "Say what?"
>
> -Wilson
>
>
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