"They Also Serve Who Only Vote on 'Ain't'" in NYT

[Wilson Gray]

My Mommo used to do the same, dInIs.

Don't know whether anybody cares but me, but, WTF. When I was just a
tyke in the late '30's, our telephone number was just 960, listed in
the book as "...c...960," wherein the "c" stood for "colored." By the
time that my last grandparent died, in the '70's, the number had
expanded to WEbster 5-7960 and the "c" had been eliminated.

-Wilson

On 12/24/06, Dennis R. Preston <preston at msu.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Dennis R. Preston" <preston at MSU.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "They Also Serve Who Only Vote on 'Ain't'" in NYT
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Wilson,
>
> And in several varieties of South Midland and Ozark AmerEng as well;
> see p. 1059 in DARE, Vol. 2. My mawmaw (S. Ill-W. Ky) even used it
> for a phone call ("Give me a holler when you get there so I'll know
> y'all are OK.")
>
> dInIs
>
> >---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >-----------------------
> >Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >Poster:       Margaret Lee <mlee303 at YAHOO.COM>
> >Subject:      Re: "They Also Serve Who Only Vote on 'Ain't'" in NYT
> >-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> >I agree with Wilson. My mother (who died in 2001 at the age of 91)
> >and her sister (two years older) used "holler at" regularly to mean
> >to speak to someone, to greet someone.
> >
> >   Margaret
> >
> >Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> >   I wonder whether anyone is dealing with "holler at" in its "current"
> >slang usage. I put "current" in quotes because the supposedly "new"
> >usage, as in, "Let me holler at you for a minute," "I just stopped by
> >to holler at you," "The next time that you come by here, why don't you
> >holler at me?" "All that you really had to do was to holler at me,"
> >etc., wherein "holler" clearly is not being used as a synonym of
> >"shout," etc., was used by my late grandparents and is still used in
> >these and similarly seemingly slangish ways by members of my
> >94-year-old mother's cohort. That is, WRT BE, this way of using
> >"holler at" has been "standard" for over a century, at least.
> >
> >-Wilson
> >
> >
> >  __________________________________________________
> >Do You Yahoo!?
> >Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
> >http://mail.yahoo.com
> >
> >------------------------------------------------------------
> >The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>
> --
> 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
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Sam'l Clemens

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org