Dawgs

[Matthew Gordon]

Well Kurath and McDavid often transcribe it with schwa but I guess it's
usually described as upgliding to [U] or [o].


On 10/24/06 4:44 PM, "Paul Johnston" <paul.johnston at WMICH.EDU> wrote:

> The schwa glide?  Or the U-glide--like [dOUg] ?  I know that's an old
> Southern form.
>
> Paul Johnston
> On Oct 24, 2006, at 4:53 PM, Matthew Gordon wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Matthew Gordon <gordonmj at MISSOURI.EDU>
>> Subject:      Re: Dawgs
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>> ---------
>>
>> 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
>>>
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>>
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