"Who-all" and "what-all"

[sagehen]

Yeah, well, I considered using those spellings, but realized I used to
think of it as the (mysterious) "ocksin."  And yes, I meant the vowel of
"all," but running various vowel sounds through my hearing memory, couldn't
be absolutely certain of any one.
AM
~~~~~~

>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


A&M Murie
N. Bangor NY
sagehen at westelcom.com