Rejected posting to ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU

[James C Stalker]

Well, stomp me flat and call me a flitter.  According to data from Dialect
Notes from the early 20th C (which I do not, unfortunately, have at hand),
Appalachian English regularly used  /a/ for /æ/ in jab, stab, tramp, stamp,
pamper, catch.



Dennis Preston writes:

>
>>
>> Wilson,
>>
>> Certainly wasn't only a Black thang in the 40's. When I was a kid the
>> verb was always 'stomp' and the stuff for postage was a 'stamp.' I
>> couldn't say (for example) "He stamped out a fire" until I went away
>> from the homeland. (Still sounds funny as hell to me.)
>>
>> And certain things I can't say even now, though I know the fancy
>> (Northern?) verb. "He stamped his ass." Impossible. Sounds like he
>> got it ready for mailing or maybe rubber-stamped it.
>>
>> dInIs
>>
>>
>>
>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>> -----------------------
>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>>> Subject:      Re: change from the bottom up was re: accusative cursing
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> -------
>>>
>>> Not to mention certain pronunciations and turns of phrase that are now
>>> felt as standard. Several years ago, I came across a reprint of a
>>> perhaps century-old book with a title something like, A Lexicon of the
>>> Speech of the Southern-Alabama Negro. Though I've tried for the past
>>> couple of years to track down this publication, I've not been
>>> successful. I've been hoping to see it mentioned by someone here, but,
>>> so far, I''ve been SOL. IAC, the number of now-ordinary words and
>>> phrases that the compiler specifies as peculiar to the speech of black
>>> Southern-Alabamians is quite surprising. Unfortunately, I can recall
>>> only one trivial example: the pronunciation of the verb, "stamp," as
>>> though it was spelled "stomp," a pronunciation that some authors, e.g.
>>> Roger Abrahams, WRT the speech of black Philadelphians, still
>>> considered to be only a black thang as recently as the '60's.
>>>
>>> -Wilson
>>>
>>> On 4/17/07, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>>>   ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>>> -----------------------
>>>>   Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>>   Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
>>>> Subject:      Re: change from the bottom up was re: accusative cursing
>>>>
>>>> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> --------
>>>>
>>>>   I agree, though Black English is not the only source.  However, it
>>>> certainly has contributed a great number of (more or less)
>>>> identifiable slang expressions to general American English since
>>>> the Swing Era and especially since the 1960s.
>>>>
>>>>     Slang by (my) definition originates in contexts regarded as
>>>> indecorous by speakers of prestige dialects.
>>>>
>>>>     JL
>>>>
>>>>   Amy West <medievalist at W-STS.COM> wrote:
>>>>     ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>>> -----------------------
>>>>   Sender: American Dialect Society
>>>>   Poster: Amy West
>>>>   Subject: change from the bottom up was re: accusative cursing
>>>>
>>>> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> --------
>>>>
>>>>   Hmmm...I like CPE; however I wonder if my students will be more
>>>>   confused if I use that while our Longman's Writer's Companion uses
>>>>   SWE.
>>>>
>>>>  I'm much more interested by the "phonetic changes work up" statement.
>>>>   I've run across a similar analysis relating to slang terms entering
>>>>   the language in a chapter in _Slam Dunks & No-Brainers_ where the
>>>>   author argues that many slang terms work their way "up" from Black
>>>>   Vernacular English into the dominant dialect. Being a newbie, I
>>>>   wasn't sure if this was a consensus view in the field or not.
>>>>
>>>>   ---Amy West
>>>>
>>>> >I use, and prefer, the term Conventional Plublic English, rather than
>>>>   >Standard English, because, of course, there are no language
>>>> standards, just
>>>> >lots of opinions, and opinions influence conventions, but not
>>>> standards.
>>>>   >Labov's, Wolfram's and Trudgill's research indicates that
>>>> phonetic changes
>>>> >work up rather than down suggests that conventions, not standards, are
>>>>   >altered from below. Have you looked at your son's pants lately?
>>>>   >
>>>>   >JCS
>>  >>
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>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
>>> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>>> -----
>>>                                                        -Sam'l Clemens
>>>
>>> "Experience" is the ability to recognize a mistake when you make it
>>> again.
>>>
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>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



James C. Stalker
Department of English
Michigan State University

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