"Li'l Abner"

[Wilson Gray]

In the eye-dialect used by Al Capp in his comic strip, the inhabitants
of Dogpatch, Kentucky, used "yo' " (his spelling) for "you." Weird!

A few days ago, I was listening to a recording by a Texas bluesman of
the '30's when I suddenly noticed that, the way that he pronounced
"you," damned if it didn't sound *very* close to, if not exactly the
same as, _yo'_ [jo]!

I guess that Capp wasn't completely off his rocker, after all.

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