aunt/ant

[Wilson Gray]

On Sep 30, 2004, at 10:13 AM, Mullins, Bill wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Mullins, Bill" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> Subject:      Re: aunt/ant
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>
> I grew up in Nashville, and have heard Black usage as:  Auntee
> (on-TEE).

Yeah, that's right. That form is used in Texas, too, especially when
talking to chirrun (very often hypercorrected to "childring"; in fact,
you can hear this latter form in the song, "Since I Lost My Baby," by
the Temptations): "Come heah, chile, 'n' say hello to yo auntie!" and,
as Bill indicates, the "standard" pronunciation is a drawled [an ti],
as though the two syllables were two different words, so that the [i]
is not reduced to [I], as would otherwise be expected.

-Wilson

> Some friends of mine from Memphis have heard the same.  My parents are
> from
> south central Tennessee (Bedford County) and East Tennessee (Marion
> County),
> and I've heard both of them say "Ain't" for aunt.
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Margaret Lee [mailto:mlee303 at YAHOO.COM]
>> Sent: Thursday, September 30, 2004 6:12 AM
>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>> Subject: Re: aunt/ant
>>
>>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Margaret Lee <mlee303 at YAHOO.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: aunt/ant
>> --------------------------------------------------------------
>> -----------------
>>
>> I grew up in southwestern Virginia hearing my mother and her
>> sister refer to their aunts as "ain'ts": "ain't Mary."
>>
>>
>> Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OHIOU.EDU> wrote:
>>  A very sophisticated grad student of mine from
>> Tennessee [tIn at si] spoke of his Aunt Jane using "ain't"
>> [ent]. And the 'u' in "aunt" isn't pronounced, is it?
>>
>> Margaret G. Lee, Ph.D.
>> Professor of English & Linguistics
>>   and University Editor
>> Department of English
>> Hampton University, Hampton, VA 23668
>> 757-727-5769(voice);757-727-5084(fax);757-851-5773(home)
>> margaret.lee at hamptonu.edu   or   mlee303 at yahoo.com
>>
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