Chipping away at -er comparatives?

[Wilson Gray]

On Tue, Mar 11, 2014 at 12:02 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:

> but watch out for those Mo' Better Blues…


Why didn't he use the spelling, "Mo' Bettuh Blues," dammit?! Nobody would
say [mo bEdr], unless he was a boojie who became aware, too late, that a
white person was within earshot.

Some black speakers use the pronunciation [mo.Is] for _most_. I've never
been able to figure out whether this is 1) a reanalysis of "most" as
"more+est" with the ordinary application of intervocalic r-drop or 2) the
reanalysis of "more" as "mo," with the ordinary addition of -est.

My vote is for (2). Back in StL, "Forest [Park]" alternated freely between
"Fahriss" and "Faw.iss." I've never heard "mor.iss," only "mow.iss."
-- 
-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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