"Hog _Mawls_"

[Wilson Gray]

There's a blues song in which the singer tells us that the police "took my
reefuh-l-out my hand." And an R&B group tells us that they have "roaches
[the insects] on my taber." Some black sneakers - even some of my own
relatives, if you can feature that! - have a rule that takes the indefinite
article "a" and shwa in structures like "one uh these, wanna, gonna, gotta,
need a" to syllabic "r." A vehh wee-ud typer hypacorrection!

"I've nevuh seener bettuh day."
"I gotter go."
"You woner go home?"
"I needer drank."
"I can use me wunner these."
"I can digger cool high."
Etc.


On Tue, Aug 26, 2014 at 11:11 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "Hog _Mawls_"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I'd heard about epenthetic L's for some time (Bryan Gick, a phonologist =
> now head of department at UBC, used to post about them here and wrote =
> them up in his Yale dissertation), but I had never witnessed any first =
> hand--with Rs yes, hard to live in New England and not, but not with =
> Ls--until I heard an audiobook of Patti Smith, from a Philly and South =
> Jersey working-class background, reading her wonderful memoir about =
> coming of age in New York (featuring Robert Mapplethorpe, with guest =
> appearances by Janis Joplin, Andy Warhol, Allen Ginsberg, and the rest =
> of the crew) from the 1960s to the 1980s.  Both she and Mapplethorpe did =
> a lot of "drawling"--not the southern kind, but the drawlings on paper =
> that you use drawling pencils for.  And yes, they would also "drawl" =
> when there was no gerund or participle around.  Lots of other local =
> pronunciations ("window" and "pillow" have clear terminal schwas), but =
> nothing as striking to me as the intervocalic and final L's after /O/, =
> precisely in "hog mawl" type contexts. Also in "external sandhi" =
> contexts, e.g. "we sawl it". =20
>
> LH=20
>
>
> On Aug 26, 2014, at 10:33 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>
> > The name of a country-music group.
> >=20
> > "Hog _Mawls_ Plantation" : book title
> >=20
> > "hog _mawls_ recipes" : epicurious.com
> >=20
> > "I still don't like chitlins, hog _mawls_, or craclins!!!" : Facebook
> >=20
> > Etc.
> >=20
> > Reminiscent - *perhaps*! - of the "cowl" that I once used in place of
> > "cow." By chance, I knew "hog _maws_" through reading, before I had
> > occasion to try to guess the pronunciation/spelling on the basis of =
> what I
> > thought I was hearing.
> >=20
> > "Craclins"?!!! In days of yore, pork _cracklings_ were as common a
> > nickel-a-bag crap-food as potato chips. Well, in the 'hood, anyway.
> >=20
> > --=20
> > -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
> >=20
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



-- 
-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

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org