Heard on the Judges

[Wilson Gray]

Who knew? I thought that "[r]adiator" = "[gl]adiatot" was eye-dialect
supposedly representing hill-billy or country white folkspeech in
general. That's why hearing it from black speakers but not from white
speakers in the wild caught my attention.

As for East Texas among blacks, the pronunciation of "radio" was "reddio,"

I served in the Army with a guy named "Radde," which he pronounced
"Roddy," as in McDowell. A Chicano sergeant from Texas approoached him
and, looking at Radde's name tag, asked rhetorically, "Ah yew [rEdI]?"
This, in turn, caused Radde to ask, apparently sarcastically, in his
own Northern accent, "Ready for what, sergeant?" Fortunately, I was
there to smooth things over. First, I told the sergeant that I was
from Texas, too, distracting him. Then I explained to Radde that the
sergeant thought that his name was "Raddy" which, pronounced in the
sergeant's Texas accent, sounded like "ready," and that all he needed
to do was to say, "Yes, sergeant," and everything would be cool.

-Wilson

On 1/11/07, Scot LaFaive <spiderrmonkey at hotmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Scot LaFaive <spiderrmonkey at HOTMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Heard on the Judges
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Yep, it's in DARE as that pronunciation. Listed as "esp. for PA."
>
> Scot
>
>
> >From: "Arnold M. Zwicky" <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU>
> >Reply-To: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> >Subject: Re: Heard on the Judges
> >Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2007 10:00:37 -0800
> >
> >---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >-----------------------
> >Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >Poster:       "Arnold M. Zwicky" <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU>
> >Subject:      Re: Heard on the Judges
> >-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> >On Jan 11, 2007, at 9:25 AM, Wilson Gray wrote:
> >
> > > "Radiator" pronounced to rhyme with "gladiator."
> > >
> > > I've heard this pronunciatiion in the wild from only three people,
> > > all black, all male, and all  from either Virginia or Pennsylvania.
> > > Two of them were much older than I am and are, therefore, dead. The
> > > third person, from Pennsylvania, whom I heard today, appearing to be
> > > about fifty, was also quite mature...
> >
> >i am familiar with this pronunciation from my childhood in eastern
> >pennsylvania, where it was associated (in my mind) with older
> >speakers -- my pennsylvania dutch grandmother, for one.  all these
> >people were white.
> >
> >surely this is in DARE Vol. IV.  (i don't have easy access to DARE in
> >the office where i am now.)
> >
> >arnold
> >
> >------------------------------------------------------------
> >The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Get FREE Web site and company branded e-mail from Microsoft Office Live
> http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/mcrssaub0050001411mrt/direct/01/
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


--
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

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