Americandialect.com

[Wilson Gray]

On Mar 30, 2005, at 12:27 AM, Mullins, Bill wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Mullins, Bill" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> Subject:      Re: Americandialect.com
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>
> =20
>
>> From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Wilson Gray
>> Sent: Tue 3/29/2005 9:43 PM
>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>> Subject: Re: Americandialect.com
>>
>> From www.axorask.com:
>>
>> "Why do many Blacks say 'finna, skrimps, ax, skraight,' and 'fixin'
>> to'"?
>>
>> -Wilson Gray
>
> Bubba Gump said "srimps" instead of shrimp or skrimp (and that seems
> to =
> be pretty accurate for the Bayou la Batre region, from what I've
> seen).  =
> I've heard "shtraight" much more than "skraight" (and not only from =
> blacks, but it seems more common there than in caucasian, although I =
> heard one of the announcers on the Lady Vols game on ESPN use it
> earlier =
> tonight).  And this white boy says "fixin' to" all the time.
>

Yeah, "Fixin' to" is a fine old general Southernism. I have a friend
who says "skreek, skraighk," etc. for "street, straight," etc. The
funny thing is that he doesn't believe that he talks like that. If i
say anything to him about it, he says, "Man, I don't say no 'skreek'! I
say 'street'!" And he does, *then.* But, of course, he always does say
"skreek," as long as he's not monitoring. Until you call his attention
to it. Which causes him to monitor. I've tried getting him on tape.
Unfortunately, that also causes him to monitor.

-Wilson