Is it just me or ...

[Wilson Gray]

Well, we probably should forgive them, Charlie. I myself was once
under the impression that the Southern so-called "twang" was peculiar
to the speech of white folk, till I had occasion to listen to a
recording of my own pronunciation of the word, "tango." I was shocked!
shocked! to discover that there was twanging going on. Of course,
since my mind has been unblocked, I've even been able to hear the
twang in the pronunciation of those blackest of speakers, the old-time
blues men, e.g. "aks (a quershtun)" sounding like "Ike's ..."

-Wilson

On 7/7/06, Charles Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Is it just me or ...
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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
> >
>
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