A possibility?

[Wilson Gray]

On Oct 28, 2004, at 8:09 PM, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET>
> Subject:      Re: A possibility?
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>> Down home in East Texas, black people say, "I ain't got ['nae at n]",
>> whereas I would expect to hear, "I ain't got [nOn]," wherein "O" is
>> approximately the "aw" of "dawn." Other words with stressed /^n/ have
>> the expected pronunciation: fun  one  done  run  gun   bun  sun etc.
>> However, after examining "nary," in DARE, it has occurred to me that
>> people are perhaps not pronouncing "none" with very strange phonetics.
>> Rather, they're saying "I ain't got nary one."
>
> Seems possible to this naif. However note also "nane" /nen/, Scots
> equivalent of "none".
>
>> People also say. "I ain't got [nae@'n^dn]" instead of "I ain't got no
>> more." That could be "I ain't got nary another one."
>
> Seems possible also.
>
> -- Doug Wilson
>

Thanks, Doug.

-Wilson