nyaa nyaa/ naa naa

[Ron butters]

In North Carolina "all-y" (pronounced as Larry says he says it) rhymes with "oily"--although  of course the word that is spelled ALL would be pronounced [ao]. Give it up, Tom: spelling reform will not change social and regional variation not even if accompanied by dire warnings of genital self-mutilation.

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On Feb 14, 2012, at 10:50 PM, Tom Zurinskas <truespel at HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:

> 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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