sannih claw; was Re: vowel raising/fronting

[Cohen, Gerald Leonard]

"San(n)ih claw" = Christmas gift.  Is this recorded anywhere other than Wilson's message below and the blues song he mentions?

G.

________________________________

From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Wilson Gray
Sent: Wed 12/13/2006 5:06 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: vowel raising/fronting



When I was a child, I was under the impression that the name of the
right jolly old elf, to coin a phrase, was "Sannih Claw." In some
Southern dialects of BE, this pronunciation has come to mean
"Christmas gift." The Other Sonny Boy Richardson has a Christmas blues
song about trying to find his "sanih claw," the context making it
clear that he's looking for his Christmas gift. The exact form that
this gift will take is left as an exercise for the listener.

-Wilson


<snip>

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