Contraction in comparatives

[Wilson Gray]

That's probably because they can't delete intervocalic /r/ and still
think that they're speaking English. Of course, Southern speakers have
no problem with this because they're fully aware that they don't speak
English. They know that they speak either Ang-lish or Meh-cun. ;-)

-Wilson

On 6/21/06, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Contraction in comparatives
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 11:10 PM -0400 6/20/06, Wilson Gray wrote:
> >As Tony Joe White put it, iss summuh yawl ain' bin  down South too
> >much. That particular pronunciation of ""barrel" is so widespread
> >that, as a child, I couldn't distinguish "barrow" [bae@] from
> >"barrel," since both /r/ and /l/ could be dropped before consonants
> >and word-finally. Indeed, there's an old R&B tune in which
> >"table" [teb@] is hypercorrected to "taber" [teb at r]. For many years, I
> >thought that a wheel_barrow_ was a wheel_barrel_, invented by someone
> >who had cut a barrel in half longitudinally and then attached a wheel
> >and a couple of hoe handles to it.
> >"Brilliant!" as they say in that Heiniken commercial.
> >
> >-Wilson
>
> Yes, we discussed wheelbarrel (which my wife, born in NYC and raised
> in Old Greenwich, CT, uses) vs. wheelbarrow a while ago.  Still,
> neither she nor other speakers I've heard pronouncing "barrel" or
> "barrow" rhyme either of them with "gal" the way Rodgers effortlessly
> does.
>
> LH
>
> >
> >On 6/20/06, 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:      Re: Contraction in comparatives
> >>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >>At 8:27 AM -0400 6/20/06, Mark A. Mandel wrote:
> >>>Ed Keer <edkeer at YAHOO.COM> asks about
> >>>
> >>>    1. ??:  This pistol is as long as I'm tall.
> >>>    2. OK:  This pistol is as long as I am tall.
> >>>
> >>>in puzzling over his judgement on
> >>>
> >>>    3. I'm gonna buy me a pistol just as long as I'm tall.
> >>>
> >>>from the Everly Brother's version of 'T for Texas'.
> >>>
> >>OK, I've checked both Jimmie Rodgers (the version on "The Best of the
> >>Legendary Jimmie Rodgers", a 1965 RCA record, and Dwight Yoakum (on a
> >>very nice tribute album to Jimmie Rodgers from a 1997 CD).  They
> >>agree in delivering the line as indicated above, with "pistol"
> >>(contra my claim yesterday, he did evidently have a very long pistol
> >>in mind, or else he was very short) and with a clear contraction.
> >>The shotgun I was recalling comes from a *later* verse in the same
> >>song that includes a remarkable rhyme:
> >>
> >>I'm gonna buy me a shotgun
> >>With a great long shiny barrel [approximately = /bael/]
> >>I'm gonna shoot that rounder
> >>That stole away my gal.
> >>
> >>Oh, and it was Blue Yodel #1 ("T for Texas").
> >>
> >>Larry
> >>
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