"A-loose" redux

[Wilson Gray]

I don't know f'sho, but "evvy which away" still lives, down to my
generation. As has been the complaint at least since Aristotle's day,
today's youth appear to be bent upon destroying their ancient heritage. Once
upon a time, I heard the intervocalic glottal stop in the speech of only one
black person. In vain did I chastise him, for he did not receive correction,
replying ever, "Man, I don't use no glo?al stop!"

Today, I heard a young black woman speak both with a glottal stop and
without one. My heart leapt! Then it occurred to me that she could have been
starting to use the glottal stop, instead of starting to lose it. Oh, well.

-Wilson

On 5/1/06, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "A-loose" redux
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Ever construed with "ever whichaway" ?
>
>   JL
>
> Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>   ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Wilson Gray
> Subject: "A-loose" redux
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Has anyone else noted the new Dr. Pepper commercial in which
> the R&B singer, Joseph "Joe Tex" Arrington, a native of Rogers, TX,
> sings
>
> "Don't turn it a-loose!"?
>
> For those who missed the beginning, a friend who's a native of
> Vermont once pointed out to me that "a-loose" is non-standard.
> I was surprised and annoyed, to the extent that I checked just
> about every dictionary and manual of usage known to man in
> order to prove him wrong. Needless to say, I failed.
>
> The point here is that Dr. Pepper is headquartered in Texas and
> "Joe Tex" and I are both natives of Texas. So, for us Texans,
> "a-loose" is as good as standard. ;-)
>
> The usual pronunciation of Joe Tex is Joe _Tek_, a nice example
> of the dropping of final /s/ in BE.
>
> -Wilson
>
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