blowzy

[Laurence Horn]

On Jan 22, 2013, at 8:08 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

> I grew up with both / grisi/ and / grizi /, but never in all my life have I
> heard / lausi /.
>
> JL

I don't know if I've heard it either, but I can imagine saying it if what I meant was "infested with lice".  Of course I might just say "lice/louse-infested" or "infested with lice", but what I don't think I'd say is "/lauzi/". If I were reading out loud and came across "lousy" with that meaning, I'd probably pronounce it "louse-y", to rhyme with "mousy".

LH
>
> On Tue, Jan 22, 2013 at 1:11 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: blowzy
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> On Mon, Jan 21, 2013 at 8:10 AM, Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:
>>> A reminder:  In many varieties of Southern American English (including
>> my own and, I would expect, Wilson's) "blouse" and "lousy" are pronounced
>> with a [z].  Unlike > in the [s]-speaking parts of the country(which is
>> most of them?).
>>
>> Wait. What? Of *course* these two words are pronounced with a [z]!
>>
>> --
>> -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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>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
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