GREAZY and GREA SY

[Beverly Flanigan]

The only distinction as I remember it was/is in the verb and adjective,
right?  No one, to my knowledge, pronounces the noun with /z/.  I wasn't
aware of an added semantic distinction in the adjective, but then, I'm not
a native in these here parts.  I'll now ask though.

At 02:41 PM 3/11/2005, you wrote:
>E. Bagby Atwood, but I don't recall a "greaze" there (except as a
>verb of course).
>
>dInIs
>
>
>
>>At 12:02 PM -0500 3/11/05, Dennis R. Preston wrote:
>>>I reckon I would call it greazy Tony's (not a pejorative as far as
>>>some foods are concerned by the way). The light and delicate of my
>>>earlier post was misleading. But if I stuck my hand into axle grease
>>>I'd say it was greazy; if I picked up something which had, say,
>>>sewing machine oil on it, I would say it was "greasy." Both
>>>situations are "negative" (I don't want no grease on me), which seems
>>>to be my requirement for such usage.
>>A related distinction between food grease (greasy) and mechanical
>>greaze (greazy) is one maintained by others, IIRC, as reported in the
>>classic dialect-anthology paper on the topic.  (Can someone remind me
>>who the author is?  I think his name starts with an A, but my
>>anthologies aren't on me at the moment, nor is DARE.)
>>
>>Larry
>
>
>--
>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