dudads, doodads

[Alison Murie]

On Nov 1, 2009, at 1:09 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: dudads, doodads
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>
> 1888 GB: I'd bet money that that is a typo for Spanish _sin duda_
> "without doubt, doubtless, no doubt," etc., given the context.
>
> 1877 HDAS: I like that "I spec'late." I been spec'latin' fo' years as
> to whether the well-known "I 'spec'" is "I SUSpect" or "I EXpect."
> I've seen it spelled out only as "I EXpect." However, for whatever
> little it may be worth, I've *always* intuited the form as "I
> SUSpect," for as long as I've been able to understand the local BE of
> East Texas, ca. seventy years. I've never felt comfortable with "I
> EXpect," on semantic grounds. I've always heard "I 'spec' " and used
> it with the understanding that it means that I think that something
> MAY happen, not that I think that something WILL happen, as it were.
>
> Needless to say, I'm fully aware that this is merely my own
> totally-unsupported-by-any-fact-that-I-know-of personal intuition.
> Hence, there's no need for anyone to waste his time pointing this out
> to me.
>
> -Wilson
>
~~~~~~~~~
Yup.  I agree that /suspect/ is what is meant. (By me, anyway.)
AM

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