query on "boid"s and "terlet"s

[Wilson Gray]

I realize that this may be a waste of time. Perhaps what we have here
is a failure to communicate. IAC, this a common feature of BE. The
first documentation of this phenomenon among blacks that I know of -
I've never researched it, but Ann Fairbairn found the phenomenon
interesting enough that she makes it a point to draw her reader's
attention to it in her novel, _Five Smooth Stones_, published by Crown
Publishers in 1966. However, I've personally been accustomed to
hearing it fall trippingly from the tongues of BE speakers ever since
I was a child in Texas. In the old TV show, _Sanford & Son_, "terlet"
is the favored pronunciation of Fred Sanford's ace boon coon. It can
be heard on pretty much any blues record.

Is it the case that people are interested in the phenomenon only as it
is manifested among white people? Is that what I'm missing? In that
case, I regret the error, to coin a phrase. ;-)

-Wilson

On 1/29/06, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Fwd: query on "boid"s and "terlet"s
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> This is from a student (not the same one who's looking at acquisition
> of AAVE) who is considering a project on American dialects for her
> senior essay.  This is another take on the question we batted around
> a month or so ago about Bill Labov and the NYC/New Orleans
> connection, but looking at the wider picture as well...
>
> ============
> I'm looking into the relationship between /r/ (the approximant as in
> American English) and "oy" or "uhy." I know that in some New Orleans
> and (old) New York varieties, SAE syllabic /r/s are replaced with
> some a rising diphthong, as in "woiking" ('working')  As I understand
> it there are also some communities (the same ones?) where the
> opposite process also occurs, as in "terlet" ('toilet').  Are there
> other dialects of English (American or otherwise) with similar
> alternations (in relation to SAE or another variety)?  I'm looking
> particularly for independent arisals, though spreading from New York
> or New Orleans would also be interesting.  Are there theories of how
> the New York and New Orleans pronunciations arose in the first place?
> (Do they stem from something similar in a British dialect?)
> ============
>
> Thanks for any pointers anyone can provide.
>
> Larry
>
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