Merkins

[Seán Fitzpatrick]

And didn't LBJ used to say "Mur'cans"?

The Writing to Read program is indeed very good.  I worked for IBM in a
company town when the kids were little (early '90s).  They were typing
charming little phonetically spelled stories long before they would have
been able to write them.  After two years the orthography was pretty much
standard English, but the stories were not so charming.

Seán Fitzpatrick
Jesusland—Faith, Hope, and Dubya-MDs
www.logomachon.blogspot.com/
-----Original Message-----

>From: Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OHIO.EDU>
>Reply-To: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject: Re: Merkins
>Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2006 22:27:04 -0400
>
>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OHIO.EDU>
>Subject:      Re: Merkins
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
>
>At 12:40 PM 10/19/2006, you wrote:
> >I don't think changing traditional spelling (tradspel) is doable.  Ted
> >Roosevelt in consort with Andrew Carnegie tried and couldn't change a
>word,
> >even through an executive order.  Webster was the last success, at least
>in
> >USA.
> >
> >So the only thing possible to influence is pronunciation, keeping it
> >consistent with tradspel to help learners by maintaining letter sound
> >correspondance.  But I see no mechanism to do that except for our
>schools.
> >Now that "phonemic awareness" (Stanovich) is seen to be the "single most
> >important attribute exhibited by successful readers" (to paraphrase),
>there
> >may be more action in that area.  I think the trend away from phonics in
>the
> >past for early reading teachers has fostered disparate pronunciations.  I
> >advocate for USA English the Writing to Read approach by IBM of the 80's,
> >only using truespel, which has no special symbols.
> >
> >"Merkins".  Is that an Ausy term?
>
>No, no--'Merkins' is a tried and true American English
>pronunciation!  Listen to Newt Gingrich (if you can stand to), and you'll
>hear him call us "Mer(a)kins" (I'd put a schwa in there).  It's
>Philly/Baltimore/east Pennsylvania dialect, and maybe more (NJ? Del?).  The
>first syllable is the same as in 'Murray'.  Recall our
>Mary/merry/marry/Murray discussion a while back?  Another problem with the
>alphabetic principle--people just won't obey it!
>
>
>
> >Tom Z
> >
> >
> >>From: RonButters at AOL.COM
> >>
> >>Do you advocate, then, quite different spelling conventions (more than
> >>the=20
> >>trivial differences that we now see) for the England, Scotland, Wales,
> >>Irela=
> >>nd,=20
> >>Jamaica, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, India, etc.? Or should
>they
> >>a=
> >>ll=20
> >>have to speak Merkin? It seems to me that this would make English a MUCH
> >>mor=
> >>e=20
> >>DIFFICULT language to learn as a 2nd language.
> >>
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> >
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>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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