Merkins

[Beverly Flanigan]

The stereotyping is true, but the pronunciation is also very real--witness
our own Walt Wolfram, a native Philadelphian.  My mention of Newt Gingrich
was simply to reference a known lay figure (he's from PA, not his
later-adopted Georgia).  Barbara Mikulski of Maryland is another user, as
is Joe Biden (you can tell I watch C-SPAN and the Sunday talk shows).  I
suspect the regional vowel change isn't generally familiar and is therefore
susceptible to mocking, just as NYC or Bostonian or Texan speech is to
outsiders.

Btw, I wasn't familiar with the pubic hair ref. until this week, so I hear
"Mer(i)can" as strictly dialectal!

Beverly

At 08:04 AM 10/21/2006, you wrote:
>Whether anyone actually says _Merkin_ or not, it's the way that some
>people's pronunciation of it is perceived/satirized.  Earlier this month, I
>went to a political sketch show (The Treason Show;
><http://homepage.mac.com/mark.brailsford/tshow/>) where the Merkin/pubic
>wig joke was made--the George Bush character always says _Mer(i)kin_.
>(Unfortunately, there are no GWB sketches on their website.)
>
>In general, _Merkin_ is used ('round these parts, but also, in my
>experience, among some left-of-center Americans) when one wants to refer to
>(or to parody someone who has) a particular kind of stereotyped American
>mindset--Ameri-centric, fairly ignorant of how the rest of the world works,
>creationist, possibly obese, etc. etc.
>
>When it's pronounced, it tends to have a long 'r' to make up for the
>missing vowel.  Merrkin.
>
>Lynne
>
>
>Dr M Lynne Murphy
>Senior Lecturer and Head of Department
>Linguistics and English Language
>Arts B135
>University of Sussex
>Brighton BN1 9QN
>
>phone: +44-(0)1273-678844
>http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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