Terlet

[Wilson Gray]

"Terlet" was also a "catch-pronunciation," so to speak, used by Sanford's
best buddy in Sanford & Son, another sitcom in which you always heard the
commode flushing.

Oi > Er and Er > Oi is also a feature of BE. In the South, at least. I can
recall a friend in Saint Louis, also from Marshall, TX, poking fun at
visiting relatives and this feature of their dialect.

-Wilson


On Sun, Mar 21, 2010 at 8:01 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Terlet
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> My grandfather, born in Manhattan in 1884, unaffectedly used all of these
> forms - to the extent that conventional orthography can represent them.  He
> never lived in any other borough.
>
> I believe I mentioned long ago that his pronunciations were remarkably like
> Archie Bunker's. Carrol O'Connor was a great screen exponent of white,
> working-class NYC dialect.
>
> JL
>
> On Sun, Mar 21, 2010 at 6:00 PM, Cohen, Gerald Leonard <gcohen at mst.edu
> >wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at MST.EDU>
> > Subject:      Re: Terlet
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Years ago, when I lived in NYC, I specifically remember someone using =
> > the word "berld" in a sentence of the sort "I berld an egg."
> > I think he lived in Queens, and he was speaking naturally.
> > =20
> > Original message from Laurence Horn, Sun 3/21/2010 3:40 PM
> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > Subject: Re: Terlet
> >
> > <snip>
> >  Presumably, there's hypercorrection going on:  if you're aware that
> > your "boids" are supposed to be "birds", you'll turn your toilets
> > into "terlets".  Again, this is all stereotypical, and I have no idea
> > how much of it is based on reality.
> >
> > LH
> >
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> >
>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
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Wilson

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