-SS -> -ST?

[Dennis R. Preston]

'Oncet' and 'twicet' are, in fact, fairly rare in AAVE (BE for
Wilson); it would be interesting to see if AAVE 'once' and 'twice'
are, in fact, "quasi-standard," arising from a CC deletion rule from
underlying 'oncet' and 'twicet.' Wilson's evidence suggests this
might be the case.

Fiesty (the normal spelling by the way pretty much all over the
South) dogs (and people for that matter) may have their label derived
from flatulence, but the current sense anywhere I know it carries not
one iota of the semantics of this precursor.

(There is an older Appalachian/South Midland sense of "flirtatious"
that may survice; see DARE.)

dInIs



>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
>Subject:      Re: -SS -> -ST?
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>"Feist" in what sense, Wilson? 'Little dog'? The OED has an entry,
>but for the 'little dog' sense, only a citation of Bartlett's
>_Dictionary of Americanisms_, the 1860 edition (there spelled
>"fiste). The more normal lexified spelling (a la Faulkner) would be
>/t/-less "fice" (OED).  The dog so-called, presemably, because it
>farts a lot; cf. "fizzle," "fiesty" ("full of beans"), archaic
>"fist," etc.
>
>--Charlie
>_______________________________________________
>
>---- Original message ----
>>Date: Thu, 30 Nov 2006 21:04:49 -0500
>>From: Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>>Subject: Re: -SS -> -ST?
>>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>
>>
>>My mother says "once-t" and "twice-t," among other words of this
>>type. OTOH, she says "fis'' for "fist" and "feis" for "feist." In
>>fact, this sort of thing is not at all unusual in BE.
>>
>>-Wilson
>
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--
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

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