A couple of Saint Louis oddities

[Wilson Gray]

FWIW, back in my day, "tossels" was used to name the tassels on shoes,
shoelaces, those fancy, "gold" ropes used for decorative purposes to
hold back curtains in theaters, in fact, for just about every use
except for corn tassels, in my case. My Texas grandfather's hobby was
vegetable-gardening. So, I knew that corn had tassels and not tossels
before my part of the family moved to Saint Louis. Also, back in those
days, the city had a population approaching 900,000, enough to protect
its version of English from that of outsiders and enough to influence
its metropolitan area.

-Wilson

On 11/20/06, Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at ohio.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OHIO.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: A couple of Saint Louis oddities
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> When I get my paper grading done, I'll look for a reference cited at the
> recent NWAV conference in Columbus on "sunda" in St. Louis.  "Tossel"
> wasn't mentioned, but I've heard that in Minnesota too; I always suspected
> it was just a fancified pronunciation of the hat piece to distinguish it
> from "corn tassels," which we had plenty of up there.  (The "tossel," as
> you know, hangs down from the "toboggan."  We've covered this in the
> distant past, I think.)
>
> Incidentally, the "for/far" homophony was also discussed at NWAV, as was
> "innit"--undoubtedly an invariant and very common British tag unrelated to
> Hinglish (which is studied in the code-switching and new Englishes literature).
>
> Beverly
>
> At 04:49 PM 11/20/2006, you wrote:
> >Wilson,
> >I'm not sure about the distribution of "sunda" but "tossel" might be
> >widespread.  I've heard it from my wife and brother-in-law (Cleveland, OH)
> >and from my MI students.  I wonder for how many people "tossel" means
> >specifically corn tassel, too.
> >
> >Paul Johnston
> >
> >----- Original Message -----
> >From: Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> >Date: Sunday, November 19, 2006 3:05 am
> >Subject: A couple of Saint Louis oddities
> >
> > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------
> > > ------------
> > > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> > > Subject:      A couple of Saint Louis oddities
> > > -------------------------------------------------------------------
> > > ------------
> > >
> > > The pronunciation of "sundae" as though it were spelled "sunda" and
> > > the pronunciation of "tassel" as though it were spelled "tossel."
> > >
> > > -Wilson
> > > --
> > > All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange
> > > complaint to
> > > come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> > > -----
> > > -Sam Clemens
> > >
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> > >
> >
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Sam Clemens

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