Vernification?

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Sep 16, 2004, at 6:28 AM, David Bowie wrote:

> I received the following query from one of our composition instructors
> here.
> Anyone heard of this word--vernification--for writing in dialect? Any
> ideas
> where the student might have heard it? I tried Google, and I got a
> couple
> misspellings of verification, a possible misspelling on a French page,
> and a
> page that talked about dealing with some guy named Vern.

the last is moderately likely.  tv commercials, comedy albums, and then
a series of films featuring hillbilly handyman Ernest P. Worrell
(played by Jim Varney), who was always talking to his (never-seen)
neighbor Vern.  "Hey, Vern" was the catchphrase.  so vernification
could mean talkin' layk Ernest.

arnold (zwicky at csli.stanford.edu)