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

[Jonathan Lighter]

It ain't necessarily so that "wuz" is meaningless eye-dialect.  While most people I know say
 / wVz / anyway, in East Tennessee I have also heard a very distinct / waz /.  A roommate used to say it, so I had plenty of time to observe and take notes.

So if you're a / waz /  sayer,  we  / wVz / sayers are the oddballs, and would be representedas saying "wuz."

Confusion obtains, however, when my "wuz" is written as "wuz" to represent "wuz" / wUz /.

Amyone wishing to write a monograph on the situation is welcome to use the title, " 'Wuz' : Is it is or is it Ain't ?"


JL

"Dennis R. Preston" <preston at MSU.EDU

> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Dennis R. Preston"

Subject: Re: wush (was Re: "Sock It to Me")
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First, these are not eye-dialect examples in the strict sense; they
are respellings which try to represent an actual pronunciation
difference (not such eye-dialect only stuff as "sez" and "wuz"

The vowel we are after here is perhaps closer to "push" than "lush,"
but it is a central vowel, at IPA barred i.

dInIs

>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


--
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

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