basketball "length" (was Re: Vals Kilmer)

[Dennis R. Preston]

I might be with Bern here Wilson. Notice the strong glide component
of /ae/ ([aej]) in the environment before angma and the tendency to
lower the onset of /i/ in varieties both Black and White around you
in St. Louis.

dInIs

>On 3/29/06, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>>  > On 3/30/06, Robert Fitzke <fitzke at michcom.net> wrote:
>>  > >
>>  > > Oddly, my dad, born in 1897, told me someone in his home town of
>>  > > LaSalle, IL, used to call him "Lengthy" (He was 6' 2 1/2";
>>very tall for the
>>  > > times.
>>
>>  "Lengthy"?  I wonder whether that might have been the ultimate source of an
>>  annoying nickname, "Linky," that I - 6' 4" and a very slim 160 lbs. - was
>>  once saddled with in St. Louis. I could never make any sense of "Linky,"
>>  but, if that originated as "Lengthy," then it makes sense.
>
>Are you sure they weren't just calling you "lanky"?
>(Just as long as they weren't calling you "hincty"!)
>
>
>--Ben Zimmer
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>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