Is it just me or ...

[Charles Doyle]

Wilson, I think that's probably another of those features shared by Southerners, black and white, that Northern dialectologists have thought to be distinctively BEV.

RC Cola, for instance, was always [ar@ si].

(I say "was" because nobody much seems to drink the stuff anymore!)

--Charlie
__________________________________________

---- Original message ----
>Date: Fri, 7 Jul 2006 14:56:21 -0400
>From: Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>Subject: Re: Is it just me or ...
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU

>
>Speaking of Southernisms, a while ago, we discussed whether using [ar@] instead of [ar] or [a:] as the citation pronunciation of the letter R,r was peculiar to BE or a general Southernism. I've heard [ar@] used by BE speakers from Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri to Virginia, the Carolinas, and Florida.
>
>Stephanie Weir, a white native of Odessa, in West TX, (I'm a black native of Marshall, in East TX) and a member of the MadTV cast, has a persona that might be described as "Middle-Aged White Trailer-Park Lady." When in this persona, Ms. Weir does indeed prounounce R,r as [ar@].
>
>Hence, I conclude that [ar@] is at least very widespread, if not general, in Texas, at least.
>
>-Wilson
>

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