finna > ret

[Wilson Gray]

On Sep 8, 2004, at 5:12 PM, Beverly Flanigan wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OHIOU.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: finna > ret
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> At 04:45 PM 9/8/2004 -0400, you wrote:
>> On Sep 8, 2004, at 1:53 PM, Jesse Sheidlower wrote:
>>
>> I haven't checked DARE, but you are correct, sir, I daresay, though
>> I'm
>> more accustomed to _fitna_ and _fin-na_, i.e. with long /n/, than
>> _finta_, But that's probably just by chance.
>>
>> BTW, my wife, a native of Pennsylvania who's unused to hearing any
>> form
>> of Southern speech, thinks that "ret" is a real word in BE. She's
>> heard
>> people say, e.g. "I'm [rEt] to go." So, instead of saying "I'm ready,"
>> when she's talking to me, she will often say, "I'm ret," with no clue
>> that that string can mean only, "I'm Rhett," if it can mean anything
>> at
>> all.
>>
>> -Wilson Gray
>
> "Red it up" or "Ret it up" is common in PA and eastern Ohio, meaning
> "ready
> it up" = clean, prepare, fix up.  I think of it as "white" usage, but
> maybe
> it's used in BE in the area too.
>

Where my wife is from, the black population is too small - slightly
above 1% - to be isolated, so there's no local dialect of BE. If it
wasn't for hearing and seeing American English everywhere, you might
just as well be in Germany or somewhere else on the Continent. However,
I understand your point. Indeed, the lack of a separate black dialect
strengthens it. I'll have to ask her.

-Wilson