"at all" = "a tall"

[Wilson Gray]

Old joke from the Texaco Star Theater:

Extra: "Pip-pip, talley-ho, and all that sort of rot!" [pIp pIp t&li
hEow &n dOl T&t sO: t at v rOt]

Milton Berle: "Excuse me. Are you British?"

Extra: "If I were any more British, I couldn't talk at all!" [If aI w@
rEnI mo@ britiS, aI kudn tO k@ tO:l]

(Or something like that.)

-Wilson

On Sat, Sep 6, 2008 at 10:29 AM, Marc Velasco <marcjvelasco at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Marc Velasco <marcjvelasco at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "at all" = "a tall"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Sounds mostly Southern to me, and perhaps vaguely British as well.
>
> On Fri, Sep 5, 2008 at 9:27 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: "at all" = "a tall"
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> I've never heard it pronounced any other way by BE speakers of my
>> parents' generation and older.
>> It's still used by black people my age and younger who still live
>> behind The Cotton Curtain. This pronunciation used in the old horse
>> operas,with the comic-relief sidekicks taking it all the way to [ei
>> tOl], i.e., "A tall, with "A" stressed and given its alphabet
>> pronunciation.
>>
>> -Wilson
>>
>> On Fri, Sep 5, 2008 at 6:57 PM, Scot LaFaive <slafaive at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> > Poster:       Scot LaFaive <slafaive at GMAIL.COM>
>> > Subject:      "at all" = "a tall"
>> >
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> >
>> > Have we done any work on this in ADS, DARE, or other
>> databases/dictionaries?
>> > I recently heard my father clearly pronounce it as "a tall" and I'm
>> curious
>> > about any info on the variation. Thanks.
>> >
>> > Scot
>> >
>> > ------------------------------------------------------------
>> > 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.
>> -----
>> -Mark Twain
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 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.
-----
-Mark Twain

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