Heard on The Judges: creeping blackenization?

[Wilson Gray]

Standard-speaking Cuban-American plaintiff from Florida (this may be
an unwarranted assumption, since I once had a pair of
studentassistants, one of whom was a Cuban-American from NYC and the
other of whom was a Puerto-Rican from Florida; anyhow, the plaintiff
was definitely from Florida, whatever his sub-ethnicity) upon handing
evidence to the bailiff, says:

"_Here goes_ a statement from my boy's physician, your honor."


This looks like a standardization of BE "here go," meaning, among
other things, "here is/are," "this is / these are," noted by Labov
mul-tie dekkids ago.


The case involving the drawling, woif- / loik-speaking, r-ful speaker
has been re-run. By listening more carefully, I heard it stated that
this speaker was not merely "from the Carolinas," but specifically
from *South* Carolina. This speaker also retroflexed /s, z/ after /r/,
im Auslaut.

-Wilson
--
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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