Fwd: conversating

[Jonathan Lighter]

As a simple back-formation, "conversate" would not necessarily have been "introduced" for the sake of prestige. All that would be needed would be lack of familiarity with "converse," which I believe is much rarer in everyday speech than "conversation."

  In addition to learning from peers, countless six-year-olds have undoubtedly coined "conversate" independently, and some of them have undoubtedly kept using it.

  JL
Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OHIO.EDU> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Beverly Flanigan
Subject: Re: Fwd: conversating
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This "Doan" pronunciation is typical of South Midland speech, what I've
been calling the 'Don --> dawn" vowel change. It's not quite 'dawn' but
something midway between Don and dawn (/a/ and /oh/ for IPA users). So NC
speakers, black or white, would have this vowel. I cited "waited on" as
sounding like this, diagnostic of South Midland both grammatically and
phonologically.

The idea that "conversating" would sound "up" is quite understandable; it's
"fancier" than plain old "conversing."

Beverly

At 04:57 PM 10/22/2006, you wrote:
>My guess is that they - ElimiDate's producers - purposely pick people
>whose speech patterns and looks are more-or-less "standard" or
>neutral, so as to draw a larger audience than they would if their
>white participants looked and sounded like they had just come from the
>holler or their black participants looked and sounded like they had
>just come straight out of Compton. They want participants who are the
>bland, all-American types that anyone can relate to.
>
>OTOH, WRT to Maury and Jerry, the stranger their "guests" are, the
>better, since the reactions of their semi-participating live audiences
>are part of the show, as is also the case with the "Judge [Name]"
>shows. On one such show, participants identified as being from
>Franklin, NC, pronounced the name "Dawn" as "Doan," i.e. [do:n]. I was
>surprised, though I shouldn't have been, given that I've been
>accustomed to hearing, e.g. "on" and "Tom" falling together with "own"
>and "tome," all my life.
>
>-Wilson
>
>On 10/22/06, Baker, John wrote:
>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>Sender: American Dialect Society
>>Poster: "Baker, John"
>>Subject: Re: Fwd: conversating
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>So what do you think is happening, Wilson? Are the participants not =
>>really in the stated settings, or are participants chosen who have less =
>>prominent local dialects, or what? It sounds like something interesting =
>>may be going on; I'm curious as to what.
>>=20
>>John Baker
>>=20
>>
>>________________________________
>>
>>From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Wilson Gray
>>Sent: Sat 10/21/2006 3:47 PM
>>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>Subject: Re: Fwd: conversating
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>FWIW, ElimiDate could give the naive watcher the impression that local
>>dialects are on the way out. The setting is, e.g. Natchez,
>>Mississippi, and the only thing clearly Southern about the speech of
>>the participants is their use of "y'all"? Black participants sound
>>like Tom Brokaw? To quote Richard Pryor, "Unreal! An' I ain' goin' fo'
>>it."
>>
>>-Wilson
>>
>>------------------------------------------------------------
>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>
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>complaint to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>-----
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>race. He brought death into the world.
>
>--Sam Clemens
>
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>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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