"No pork on my fork"

[Wilson Gray]

During the Korean-War era, a friend of mine was stationed at Redstone
Arsenal at Huntsville. According to him, GI's referred to the locals as
"doo-wahs," because of a feature of the local dialect. Instead of
saying, "huh? or "what?" or even "say what?", the locals said, "_Do_
what?"

Thanks to Jerry Springer, I can testify that "do what?" is still used
in this way, though, unfortunately, I can't say where, since the
"guests" don't always mention their home states or hometowns. To my
ear, "do what?" has the same intonation pattern as "say what?"

-Wilson Gray

On Jun 20, 2005, at 2:02 PM, Mullins, Bill wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Mullins, Bill" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> Subject:      Re: "No pork on my fork"
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> You can't really use Huntsville as a guide for Alabama or southern
> speech.  Remember, this is the city where, when Wernher von Braun was
> speaking to a bunch of aerospace executives during the Apollo program
> in
> the 1960's (he had arrived just before the boom -- he caused the boom
> --
> in 1950), "You can tell us Huntsville old-timers by our southern
> accents" (spoken with a very correct Prussian accent . . .)
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: American Dialect Society
>> [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Dennis R. Preston
>> Sent: Monday, June 20, 2005 12:59 PM
>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>> Subject: Re: "No pork on my fork"
>>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       "Dennis R. Preston" <preston at MSU.EDU>
>> Subject:      Re: "No pork on my fork"
>> --------------------------------------------------------------
>> -----------------
>>
>> What! Long-o and open-o are not preserved before /r/ in
>> Alabama! I don't eat no barbecue made by no vowel conflaters.
>>
>> dInIs (who knows his horse from his sore throat)
>>
>>> There's a barbecue restaurant here in Huntsville that has the slogan:
>>> "Too much pork for just one fork".
>>
>>
>> --
>> Dennis R. Preston
>> University Distinguished Professor
>> Department of English
>> Morrill Hall 15-C
>> Michigan State University
>> East Lansing, MI 48824-1036 USA
>> Office: (517) 432-3791
>> Fax: (517) 453-3755
>>
>