wush (was Re: "Sock It to Me")

[Wilson Gray]

For me and Chuck Berry, it rhymes with "push."

-Wilson Gray

On Jun 27, 2005, at 8:56 PM, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET>
> Subject:      Re: wush (was Re: "Sock It to Me")
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> MW3 shows the variant pronunciation /wUS/ for "wish".
>
> In those 'eye-dialect' examples of "wush" is the pronunciation /wUS/
> (rhymes with "push") or is it /wVS/ (rhymes with "lush") or is it some
> mixture of these? Do we know for sure? Is /wU/ an expected variant of
> /wV/,
> or vice-versa, or not?
>
> "Wush" is one conventional Scots spelling of "wiss" (= "wish"). SND
> on-line
> gives several examples from 19th and 20th century Scots. My little
> "Concise
> Scots Dictionary" seems to indicate a pronunciation /wVS/ (along with
> /wIs/, /wIS/, /wVs/).
>
> -- Doug Wilson
>