Say what? It must be catching!

[Wilson Gray]

No doubt. But when I hear in EurAm speech a feature that a leading
EurAm scholar has specifically claimed, in print, is a peculiarity of
only AfrAm speech, I notice it.

OTOH, as has long been known, at least since George Carlin spoke to
this question in the 'Sixties, AfrAm influence on EurAm speech has
always been negligible.

-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.
-----
-Mark Twain



On Tue, Aug 19, 2008 at 8:15 AM, LanDi Liu <strangeguitars at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       LanDi Liu <strangeguitars at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Say what? It must be catching!
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I say that!  [ɑməˈgouð̩əˈstoɚ] = I'm gonna go to the store.
>
> For those of you who can't see the IPA: sorry.
>
> Actually, I think most of us say "umma" or whatever.  People just
> don't notice it.  I've even heard it reduced to "ma" [mə].  I think
> it's just a normal feature of everyday connected speech (agreeing with
> Charlie).
>
> Randy
>
> On Tue, Aug 19, 2008 at 8:26 PM, Charles Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
>> Subject:      Re: Say what? It must be catching!
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Wilson, to my white Southern ears (which are actually sort of pinkish), that sounds like a normal contraction of "I am going to"!  I can't remember where Brady grew up.
>>
>> --Charlie
>> _____________________________________________________________
>>
>> ---- Original message ----
>>>Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2008 18:52:33 -0400
>>>From: Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>>>Subject: Say what? It must be catching!
>>>
>>>Tom Brady, New England Patriots quarterback, on Boston local news:
>>>
>>>"_Umma_ do my best to be in shape when the season begins"
>>>
>>>as opposed to the expected
>>>
>>>"_Mgunna_ do my best ..."
>>>
>>>
>>>Well, it is known that he and Randy Moss, his favorite pass-catcher, hang out together a lot, even off the field. :-)
>>>
>>>-Wilson
>>
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>>
>
>
>
> --
> Randy Alexander
> Jilin City, China
> My Manchu studies blog:
> http://www.bjshengr.com/manchu
>
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