Whilst

[Bill Palmer]

[OT] Linguistics aside, it's just a very arresting commercial. I don't know
about y'all, but I certainly do want a well-armed ag commissioner in my
state.

Since I'm already off-topic, $5 million seems like a pretty picayune budget
for the ag commissioner in a  state like Alabama.

And another thing (since Dale brings it up and includes dog tags in his
campaign graphic, and as a retired military officer I can say this ...we
have gotten to the point that
military veteran = selfless saint, personification of honor and virtue.
Military personnel come out of the human race like everyone else. (Still
though, I wish more members of congress & the administration would have
served, so they would have some idea of the effects of their actions.

My apologies for the rant.

Bill P


----- Original Message -----
From: "David Wake" <dnwake at GMAIL.COM>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, July 17, 2010 11:16 AM
Subject: Re: Whilst


> ---------------------- Information from the mail
> header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       David Wake <dnwake at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Whilst
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Listen to the way this guy from Alabama says "why".
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQdTgkY321s
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Jul 16, 2010, at 20:20, Tom Zurinskas <truespel at HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Tom Zurinskas <truespel at HOTMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: Whilst
>> ---
>> ---
>> ---
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> I looked up "whilst" in the "MacMillan Dictionary for Children" that
>> I just bought (I'm collecting dictionaries).  It does not contain
>> the word "whilst".  Only "while" and that in verb form as well.
>> (Does whilst have a verb form too?)
>>
>> Interestingly every word that starts with "wh" is given a first
>> pronunciation of ~hw and a second of ~w (except those pronounced as
>> ~h, as in who).  I never hear ~hw in USA.  I don't say ~hw so that
>> may have something to do with it.
>>
>> Imagine "whoa" as "hwoa"
>>
>> Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL7+
>> see truespel.com phonetic spelling
>>
>>
>>
>> ----------------------------------------
>>> Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2010 17:11:25 -0300
>>> From: dad at POKERWIZ.COM
>>> Subject: Whilst
>>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>>
>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>> -----------------------
>>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>>> Poster: "David A. Daniel"
>>> Subject: Whilst
>>> ---
>>> ---
>>> ---
>>> ---
>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>> A while ago, TZ and somebody - don't remember who - had a tiff
>>> about whether
>>> Americans say whilst. TZ was saying they do not. I agreed (quietly
>>> - I
>>> didn't write anything) at the time, thinking it mostly a Britism.
>>> Well,
>>> immediately thereafter I started hearing whilst all over the place on
>>> American TV shows. I thought: hmph. But then I thought: a lot of
>>> writers for
>>> US TV are Brits and Canadians as are many actors in the US. So
>>> maybe there
>>> was dialect leak going on, with American actors saying Brit/
>>> Canadian-written
>>> lines, or Brit/Canadian actors saying whilst and not knowing
>>> they're not
>>> supposed to. I was satisfied with that hypothesis until the other
>>> day I was
>>> watching CNN and the interviewee, the District Attorney of some
>>> Podunk
>>> county in Ohio, said whilst. So now I'm in a funk and don't know
>>> what to
>>> think. Maybe he is another sleeper spy who missed the ESL class on
>>> while/whilst and thus gave himself away, like when Tony Franciosa
>>> said
>>> loo-tenant instead of leff-tenant and gave himself away as not
>>> being a Brit.
>>> DAD
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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>> ------------------------------------------------------------
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>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org


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