"Who-all" and "what-all"

[Dennis R. Preston]

Hmmmm! In my southern Illinois ute, we said

olly, olly oxen free

I suspect the oxen is just a spelling variant, but we really did say
"olly," homophonous with "Ollie," definitely not "ally," at least if
that first vowel is meant to be that of "all" (for those who
distinguish the two, that is, as all from southern Illinois do.

dInIs



>Page Stephens  writes:
>"When the game was over did you call ally ally outs in free like we did in
>southern Illinois?"
>~~~~~~~~~~
>We did, but the version in SE NE was "ally ally ocksin free!"  (1930s)
>A. Murie
>
>
>
>~@:>   ~@:>   ~@:>   ~@:>


--
Dennis R. Preston
University Distinguished Professor
Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic,
        Asian and African Languages
Wells Hall A-740
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1027 USA
Office: (517) 353-0740
Fax: (517) 432-2736