Dawgs

[Matthew Gordon]

I thought the "dawg" spelling was meant to represent not just the open-o
pronunciation but the more specifically southern diphthongal form with the
schwa glide.


On 10/24/06 3:34 PM, "Charles Doyle" <cdoyle at UGA.EDU> wrote:

> I went to a football game this past weekend, the University of Georgia vs.
> Mississippi State.  Each university has for its totem the bulldog.  Each
> university features its team as the "Dawgs"; the University of Georgia (at
> least) has been doing so for many years.
>
> It wasn't much of a game, so I had time to wonder about that spelling in a
> region where "dawg" represents what has been the traditional pronunciation
> anyway--with that "open o" that dialects of many regions are losing apace.
> Among (old-fashioned) "Southern" speakers, the "dog"/"dawg" distinction would
> be simply orthographic (like "come"/"cum"). But what about the semantics?  Is
> it (or was it when it originated) merely a playful bit of self-conscious
> eye-dialect?
>
> Or, is the spelling something like a Confederate battle flag to be waved into
> the face of non-Southerners?  Or perhaps it simply suggests "tradition" for
> fans of the University of Georgia (I don't know about MSU), whose campus is
> now prevalently populated by first- and second-generation /dag/-speaking
> Northern immigrants?
>
> Is it because we lost that war 140 years ago that Southerners have been so
> absorbed, obsessed with issues of our regional identity?  A mom-and-pop
> restaurant in a small Georgia town will advertise its "Southern cooking," as
> if that weren't the default . . . .
>
> Oh, yes, the Dawgs won the game.  Barely.
>
> --Charlie
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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