Brooklynese in N.O.

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Sep 14, 2005, at 1:48 PM, Peter McGraw reports:

> --On Wednesday, September 14, 2005 12:43 PM -0700 "Arnold M. Zwicky"
> <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU> wrote:
>
>>  anybody have evidence
>> on the use of "y'all" in brooklyn in the late 19th century?
>
> Well, I did hear that some of the workers took their boat (a yawl, no
> doubt) and went back to Brooklyn.

i believe they were escaping from the yaws, a disease resulting from
the highly contagious vocalization of postvocalic [l].

arnold