RI cabinet was: Re: non-coda r-loss

[Wilson Gray]

There's a local term for "ice cream soda" or "milkshake"? I didn't know that!

[Here, Wilson plays the race card]

Probably because, when I was "coming up," as is said in BE and,
possibly, in SE in general, colored weren't allowed access to foods as
these. Of course, had we known exactly what they were, we could have
made them ourselves, at home, i suppose. But they're only literary
terms for me.

Needless to say, I could easily get either or both of these anywhere
in the greater Boston area. But now, I don't care.

OTOH, I *love* barbecued "snoots" (i.e. swine snouts), but they're
difficult to come by, in these parts, since such offal is generally
not regarded as a foodstuff, except when inside of a hot dog.

-Wilson

On Fri, Jun 19, 2009 at 4:45 PM, Laurence Horn<laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Â  Â  Â  Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject: Â  Â  Â Re: RI cabinet was: Re: non-coda r-loss
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 11:34 AM -0400 6/19/09, Amy West wrote:
>>>Date: Â  Â Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:20:10 -0400
>>>From: Â  Â Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>>>Subject: Re: Non-coda r-loss in Southern speech?
>>>
>>>At 5:40 AM -0400 6/18/09, Bill Palmer wrote:
>>> Â >
>>>>I was always taken with the unusual names for various beverages in Boston:
>>>>
>>>>Soda = "tonic"
>>>>Ice cream soda = "cabinet"
>>>
>>>>From what I've read and seen, "cabinet" is
>>>largely if not entirely restricted to Rhode
>>>Island, while I have encountered "tonic" in
>>>Boston (for 'soft drink') and "frappe" in both
>>>Mass. and R.I.
>>>
>>>LH
>>
>>You are correct about "cabinet", though it also creeps into the areas
>>of CT and MA that border RI. But I believe "cabinet" is also a
>>milkshake term.
>>
> Yes, it's used for both milkshakes and ice cream sodas. Â "Coffee
> cabinets" were available in a shop I visited in Waverly, RI (just
> over the CT line), but I can't remember whether it was a milk shake
> or an ice cream soda (with coffee syrup and coffee ice cream).
>
> LH
>
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>



--
-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

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