Collegiate "geek" in the '70s (was Re: Synonymy avoidance)

[Jonathan Lighter]

But one nut doth not a universal make. Any further evidence of this distinction ?

JL

Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Benjamin Zimmer
Subject: Re: Collegiate "geek" in the '70s (was Re: Synonymy avoidance)
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Larry Horn:
>and similarly the classic [veys] (< $200) /[vaz] (> $200) example
>(where the latter is often taken to be more costly)

Jonathan Lighter:
>I've always said /vaz/ even though I can't afford any.
>
>Didn't this "distinction" really start out as a joke ? Does anybody(except
>a few uptight linguists) really observe it ?

AFAIK, Labov was serious when he mentioned a woman in New York having that
distinction. I tracked down the exact reference: it's in _Sociolinguistic
Patterns_, p. 251 (in a footnote).


--Ben Zimmer


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