"Jeet jet?" / "No, jew?" (1925)

[Dennis R. Preston]

Nothing New York specific about any of the quite regular phonetic
processes which would reduce "Did you eat yet? No; did you" to
"Jeetchet? No; jew?"

dInIs

>Interesting. Thanks, Barry.
>
>I first heard it as a graduate student in Fayetteville, AR, ca. 1961 -
>from a professor from Fayetteville (or nearby), who had been a graduate
>student at Penn shortly before 1961. (I was not yet a reader of the
>NYorker.)
>
>Bethany


--
Dennis R. Preston
University Distinguished Professor
Department of English
15C Morrill Hall
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824
517-353-4736
preston at msu.edu