Dawgs

[Beverly Flanigan]

I agree with Matt but would transcribe it as [daUg].  It's present here in
SE Ohio too.  The confusion with open O may result, as suggested, from the
common loss of that phoneme, and from comic strip representations like that
in "Hi and Lois," which uses the spelling Dawg but clearly isn't set in
Appalachia.

At 06:08 PM 10/24/2006, you wrote:
>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
> >>>
> >>> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >>
> >> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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