Different dialects, same error

[Wilson Gray]

On Sep 5, 2004, at 7:27 PM, Dennis R. Preston wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Dennis R. Preston" <preston at MSU.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Different dialects, same error
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>> If secondary or at least stronger than primary stress on "Mc" and
>> "Mac" name prefixes identifies real soul brothers, you gone run into
>> some real funny lookin ones, prolly my grandaddy, Ike "Red" Dennis,
>> the funniest (rest his soul).
>
> dInIs
>

Aw, c'mon, dInIs! You know that neither Pryor nor I meant to exclude
*any* of The Good Folk Who Come From Home. We had in mind rather the
people who gave us atrocities like "Mickey Dee's" for McDonald's
instead of "Mack Dee's" and who think that "homes" < "homie" < "home
boy" is spelled "holmes"! "Holmes"! Can you feature that?

-Wilson

>
>
>> On Sep 5, 2004, at 9:54 AM, James A. Landau wrote:
>>
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>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> Poster:       "James A. Landau" <JJJRLandau at AOL.COM>
>>> Subject:      Re: Different dialects, same error
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>>> --
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>>> In a message dated  Sat, 4 Sep 2004 22:47:13 -0400,  Wilson Gray
>>> <wilson.gray at RCN.COM> writes:
>>>
>>>>   as a result of a
>>>>  phonological rule of BE that causes Mc/Mac always to be pronounced
>>>> as
>>>>  [maek], as in "M[ae]c Cracklin," "M[ae]c Arthur," I mistakenly
>>>>  *assumed* that McBrown, pronounced M[ae]c Brown in BE, was his
>>>> surname.
>>>>  That is, there is no difference in pronunciation between "Johnny
>>>>  McBrown" and "Johnny Mack Brown."
>>>
>>> When you say "no difference in pronunciation" between "McBrown" and
>>> "Mack
>>> Brown", are you saying that in BE the "Mc-" or "Mac-" prefix receives
>>> the same
>>> stress as the middle name "Mack" standing along?
>>
>> Exactly. It's a very widespread, if not universal, feature of BE as
>> spoken by "the real soul brother," to borrow a term from Richard
>> Pryor.
>> I remember my Texas grandparents speaking of General "Mack Arthur."
>> There's the Missouri-born blues singer, "Jimmy Mack Cracklin." There's
>> my North Carolina-born buddy, "David Mack Lane."
>>
>>>   That is, would a speaker of BE say " 'maek 'braun" rather than "
>>> maek 'braun" for "McBrown"?
>>
>> However, as your intuition seems to be telling you, when a Mc/Mac name
>> is spoken in isolation, there's sufficient difference in stress and/or
>> intonation - or something or other - on the prefix that it's possible
>> to tell, e.g. "M(a)cLane" from "Mack Lane" without having it spelled
>> out.
>>
>>> The other possibility, that in BE a single-syllable middle name would
>>> be unstressed, I would
>>> find a little surprising.
>>>
>>>           - James A. Landau
>>>
>>
>> You are correct, sir.
>>
>> -Wilson Gray
>
>
> --
> Dennis R. Preston
> University Distinguished Professor of Linguistics
> Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic, Asian, and African
> Languages
> A-740 Wells Hall
> Michigan State University
> East Lansing, MI 48824
> Phone: (517) 432-3099
> Fax: (517) 432-2736
> preston at msu.edu
>