Sigh.....

[Jonathan Lighter]

Some years ago, a friend of mine decided to enter politics in an attempt to begin changing the world.  He ran for the municipal office that keeps track of deeds.  When I saw his campaign stickers they all said, "For Register of Deeds."

He meant "Registrar," so naturally I told him so.  He replied that, indeed, "Registrar" was the correct word, but the official name of the position since 1792 was in fact "Register of Deeds" and that was that. The position, that is, not the registry the deeds were kept in.

Maybe if he'd printed "For *Registrar* of Deeds" on the stickers he'd have won, but I doubt it.

JL

"Dennis R. Preston" <preston at MSU.EDU> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Dennis R. Preston"

Subject: Re: Sigh.....
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, us guys would first want to know if the representation you give
of "legislature" did indeed have the affricate /tsh/ as the onset to
the last syllable (or even a /ty/ onset, common in some parts and
among some groups in the US South, and among some hypercorrectors).
If so, then it was either a) a slip of the tongue (which apparently
you guys never make) or b) a substitution of "legislature" for
"legislator," your interpretation. On the other hand, if the onset to
the final syllable was /t/ (with no following /y/), is it possible
that the reduction of the final vowel to /schwa+r/ or even a weak
syllabic /r/ perhaps misled you into hearing "legislature" if you
expected to hear something of the /o/ quality in the final syllable?

See how us guys are? We got a lot more tricks up our sleeves than
"wondrous regionalisms," though we welcome your sneering at us for
adoring them too.

dInIs

>Just when you thought it was safe, when the neophyte fleabite had
>crawled back to his hole....
>
>During a Sandra Day decompress on MSNBC today, 7/1/05 at about 11:15 AM
>
>Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL) said of the esteemed disrobing O'Connor:
>
>>"She's a former state legislature."
>
>And you guys, I bet would just accept this as wondrous regionalism. Crikey!
>
>
>Then on the other Hand, in an ensuing press conference Teddy
>
>>"I urge President Borsch (sic)...."
>
>How apt! ;-) Even minus the "t"


--
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

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