[Ads-l] maters and toms

[Laurence Horn]

> On Aug 3, 2015, at 9:09 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> When I arrived in East Tennessee in 1974, "maters" was (and still is) at
> least as common as "taters."

I can picture a trendy vegetarian eatery in East Tennessee for the hipster crowd (I'm sure there are many such) called "Alma Mater", with a soulful animated tomato on the awning.

LH

 
> 
> Neither was in use in NYC.
> 
> JL
> 
> On Mon, Aug 3, 2015 at 2:16 AM, Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: maters and toms
>> 
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> 
>> On Mon, Aug 3, 2015 at 2:01 AM, Ben Zimmer wrote:
>>> 
>>> On Mon, Aug 3, 2015 at 12:46 AM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> On Mon, Aug 3, 2015 at 12:32 AM, Benjamin Barrett wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>> Mater is new to me.
>>>> 
>>>> Not to me. But, "tom" is.
>>>> 
>>>> Youneverknow.
>>> 
>>> Some may know "Mater" as the name of the car voiced by Larry the Cable
>>> Guy in the "Cars" movies.
>>> 
>>> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__en.wikipedia.org_wiki_Mater-5F-28Cars-29&d=AwIBaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=wFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0ZpW1TsSxPIWYiZRsMFFaLQ&m=Od14yrWbiE0eFI5-9CUra754sR-Rvt3unadyYcjpUPU&s=yQG5TiP-q_yMh14m9fyNepGLqXJMhTMw2jaLZrKRFXI&e= 
>>> 
>>> The car's name and personality were inspired by a NASCAR enthusiast
>>> named Douglas "Mater" Keever.
>>> 
>>> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.ew.com_article_2006_06_19_cars-2Dman-2Dwho-2Dinspired-2Dmater&d=AwIBaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=wFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0ZpW1TsSxPIWYiZRsMFFaLQ&m=Od14yrWbiE0eFI5-9CUra754sR-Rvt3unadyYcjpUPU&s=YHNJtrr6h_v7xEccSTicdhB3aVw0M-mjDrON9WT2ELc&e= 
>>> "Cars director John Lasseter first met Keever at the Lowe's Speedway
>>> in 2001, while on a fact-finding research trip... When Lasseter first
>>> walked up to him, Keever offered a brewski and introduced himself the
>>> way he always does to new folks in his life: 'My name's Mater,' he
>>> said. Mater? asked Lasseter. 'Yeah, like tuh-mater, but without the
>>> tuh.' (Does that exchange sound familiar? It should -- it's exactly
>>> the way Mater the tow truck introduces himself to the Lightning
>>> McQueen character in Cars.) Keever got the nickname as a kid, chucking
>>> 'tuh-maters' around a farm run by his mom's parents."
>> 
>> Under the entry for "tomato," DARE lists several aphetic variants from
>> the South and South Midland, including: "martis", "mat(t)er",
>> "mat(t)is", "mata", "mato", and "mortas". Citations go back to 1895 in
>> Dialect Notes, but this one may be of special interest, from Walt
>> Wolfram and Donna Christian's "Appalachian Speech":
>> 
>> 1976 Wolfram-Christian Appalachian Speech 51, 'Taters for potatoes and
>> 'maters for tomatoes can certainly be considered to be stereotypes,
>> and they are sometimes the topic of comment. . . In fact, one of the
>> informants in our sample responded . . as follows: Fieldworker: What
>> are some of the things people grow here in their gardens? Informant:
>> Oh, potatoes and tomatoes--or did you want me to say 'maters and
>> 'taters?
>> 
>> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__books.google.com_books-3Fid-3D-2D4N6AAAAIAAJ-26q-3Dmaters&d=AwIBaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=wFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0ZpW1TsSxPIWYiZRsMFFaLQ&m=Od14yrWbiE0eFI5-9CUra754sR-Rvt3unadyYcjpUPU&s=g3ZS9GQqFonknnpIbb5JtN_svpEE4-gUwZnfUIHC02g&e= 
>> 
>> --bgz
>> 
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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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