Chipping away at -er comparatives?

[Laurence Horn]

On Mar 11, 2014, at 1:44 AM, Wilson Gray wrote:

> 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.

I wondered about that too; seems like it should either be "Mo' Betta/Bettuh" or "More Better", but they split the difference.

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