" Olive, the other reindeer"

[Jonathan Lighter]

"Maj. Sick!" "Ute!"  I gottem boat right away!  Yankees rule!

  JL

"Dennis R. Preston" <preston at MSU.EDU> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Dennis R. Preston"

Subject: Re: " Olive, the other reindeer"
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I also do not have r-deletion, but I got this one immediately (in the
12th century when I first heard it). Maybe I had a more flexible ear
when I was a Ute.

dInIs

>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender: American Dialect Society
>Poster: Charles Doyle
>Subject: Re: " Olive, the other reindeer"
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Try this one, dInIs. It's one of those old title-author jokes (it
>doesn't work at all in my dialect; I can't remember how long it took
>me to "get it"):
>
>_School Lunches_, by Maj. Sick.
>
>--Charlie
>____________________________________________________________
>
>---- Original message ----
>>Date: Fri, 3 Aug 2007 11:45:32 -0400
>>From: "Dennis R. Preston"

>>Subject: Re: " Olive, the other reindeer"
>>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>
>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>Sender: American Dialect Society
>>Poster: "Dennis R. Preston"

>>
>>James,
>>
>>Why are you surprised? Some of us are just very serious persons. (It
>>may also be the case that "when my pragmatic organizer took over" the
>>lag was very short indeed.)
>>
>>For some reason, I got the "holly" and "Charlie" rhyme, instantly but
>>I attribute that to the "Boston" priming.
>>
>>I actually don't know of many cross-phonemic (timed) comprehension
>>tests, although I have conducted a number of cross-phonemic
>>comprehension tests within changing dialectal frameworks and find it
>>odd that speakers of changing dialects are not always that much
>>better at understanding the new forms than others. For example, when
>>young persons from the Detroit area are played samples of words like
>>"bet" with increasingly lower or backer positions (forms they would
>>use themselves), they very often misunderstand the words to be "bat"
>>or "bet," respectively. It's almost as if their producers are out in
>>front of their perceivers.
>>
>>Weird.
>>
>>dInIs
>
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>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org


--
Dennis R. Preston
University Distinguished Professor
Department of English
15C Morrill Hall
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824
517-353-4736
preston at msu.edu

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