Y'all Say WHUTTTT?

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Sat Sep 29 21:51:58 UTC 2007


Reminds me of the rifle-range sergeant at Fort Leonard Wood, MO, who
not only pronounced "fire" as "far," but also pronounced "firers" as
"fars."

-Wilson

On 9/29/07, Cohen, Gerald Leonard <gcohen at umr.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at UMR.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Y'all Say WHUTTTT?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Reminds me of a joke (not hilarious, but I pass it along anyway) told to =
> me by an elderly lady in a nearby town. "Did you know the three wise men =
> in the Christmas story were firemen?" When I said "No," she continued. =
> "It says in the Bible they came from afar."
> =20
> Gerald Cohen
> Rolla, MO
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Doug Harris
> Sent: Sat 9/29/2007 11:52 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
> Subject: Y'all Say WHUTTTT?
>
>
>
> 'Got a phone call yesterday on our business line, clearly
> from a call center, based on the amount of chatter in the
> background. I couldn't hear who the caller said she was
> representing, and I was totally befuddled by her question:
> "Who's yer far chiff?"
> I asked several times for her to repeat, then gave up in
> frustration, said I didn't know, and hung up.
> As I did so, I recalled that for some odd reason, that
> line has been known to be called by people seeking our
> tiny village's fire department.
> The light went on: She was enquiring as to our _fire chief_.
> ---
> She's got _some_ heavy-duty accent!
>  (the other) doug
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 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

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