Brooklynese in N.O.

[Wilson Gray]

Not really, but it was a nice try. My father was a native of that
region and I don't recall his ever using exactly that pronunciation.

BTW, do you recall "Birmingham equals Bombmingham" and such from the
'60's? For local blacks, this was an exact pun, i.e. "Bumminham eeka
Bumminham." The pronunciation of "bomb" as "bum" and of "equal" as
"eeka" extends to East Texas. I recall my grandparents speaking of
"bum(s)" and "bummin'" dewin th' Waw and my mother uses "eeka" for
"equal" in the mathematical sense to this very day, though she's been
living in Sacramento for over a half-century. I.e., for her, one plus
one will always _eeka_ two, but she would pronounce "equal rights"
pretty much as in sE. In E TX, Birmingham is approximately
"Boiminham."

-Wilson Gray

On 9/15/05, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Brooklynese in N.O.
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Dan Baum, "The Regulars," _New Yorker_, Sept. 19, p. 36:
>
>  " ' These people got no place else to go,' she said, in the meaty New Orleans accent that is more ' Sopranos '  than  ' Gone With the Wind.' "
>
> Are there other "meaty" accents ?    Would we know ?
>
> JL
>
> "Mullins, Bill" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: "Mullins, Bill"
> Subject: Re: Brooklynese in N.O.
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> >And, lest anyone misunderstand, I really do make the claim that, in my
> >childhood, black people in Marshall, Texas, did pronounce, e.g. "burn"
> >as "boin" and, e.g. "coin" as "kern," abstracting away from the actual
> >phonetic representations. Butchawl get the picture.
>
> You may have seen an old episode of "Saturday Night Live" in which
> Billy Crystal and Christopher Guest played two old Negro League baseball
> players, in blackface. One or the other of them talked about playing
> in Birmingham, and "bir" came out like "buoy" -- Buoyminham.
> Is this the same pronounciation?
>
>
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--
-Wilson Gray