nyaa nyaa/ naa naa

[Tom Zurinskas]

so all-y, which kinda makes sense, became ollie, which doesn't.  Early awe-dropping.  Watch out that Paulie doesn't become Polly.

Tom Zurinskas, Conn 20 yrs, Tenn 3, NJ 33, now Fl 9.
See how English spelling links to sounds at http://justpaste.it/ayk


 > 
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject: Re: nyaa nyaa/ naa naa
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> And come to think of it, I can't quite recall if we used "All-y all-y in free" as I claimed earlier or "Ollie ollie in free" as I just claimed below. They wouldn't have been homophonous for us--"Ollie" with an /a/ (really a script a) rhyming with "collie" and otherwise known as the nose-biting dragon companion of Kukla and Fran, vs. "all-y" with an /O/ rhyming with no actual word, although I could imagine saying "Yesterday it felt like a real summer day, but today it's kind of fall-y", rhyming with "all-y". Oh, I have it: all-y as in Paulie.
> 
> LH
> 
> On Feb 14, 2012, at 8:29 PM, Paul Johnston wrote:
> 
> > Come to think of it, "ollie ollie in free" was used in Morristown, NJ in the '60s.
> >
> >
> > On Feb 14, 2012, at 8:17 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
> >
> >> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> >> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> Poster: Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> >> Subject: Re: nyaa nyaa/ naa naa
> >> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >> On Feb 14, 2012, at 8:09 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
> >>
> >>> At 2/14/2012 12:22 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
> >>>> My personal recollection of text and pronunciation is "ollie ollie in
> >>>> free"
> >>>
> >>> I have asked two friends for their recollections. The three of us
> >>> all recall the phrase and pronunciation as above.
> >>>
> >>> One, a woman now in her eighties, grew up in Connecticut and the
> >>> Worcester, Mass. area.
> >>>
> >>> The second, male, was a lad in NYC in the mid-940s.
> >>
> >> Aha! I'm not alone, then. (Well, I was a lad in NYC 5-10 years after that. Give or take a millennium.)
> >>
> >> LH
> >>
> >>>
> >>> The third, female, grew up in Cambridge, Mass. in the mid-1950s.
> >>>
> >>> Joel
> >>>
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