Re: CHAT: Southernisms (was Re: Genitive relationships)

Tom Wier wrote:
> Do you know the settlement patterns for Florida?  Was it mostly
> by people from like South Carolina and Georgia?  As for Texas, the
> situation is kinda confused, for a couple reasons:
Well, Florida is really two states, from a cultural perspective - the
Panhandle, and the Penninsula.  The Panhandle was the first to be really
settled.  I don't know the pattern, tho, but rural areas are pretty
"Southern", so I'd say it probably was Georgians and Alabamians,
mostly.  The Spanish seem not to have left a very big influence in the
Panhandle.  The Penninsula was opened up by railroads, and I think that
it was settled by people all over the country.  In addition, Florida,
especially the southern part, is a popular retirement destination, so
the southern part has a lot of elderly Yanks.  The far south has had a
*lot* of Hispanic immigration, so much so that it's said that Miami is
more Hispanic than Caucasian.  I've never been there, so I don't know
how true that is, but Spanish is a big linguistic influence in the
South.

> I have.  I remember quite distinctly hearing some guy on the
> elevator once saying something, and then "Oh, [mE:~]!"  Note
> of course that the [E] is still present.  It kinda makes me wonder
> if the Cajuns of East Texas had anything to do with that...
Now that I think about it, I think I do *sometimes* hear a loss of the
nasal.

> (that's another thing, of course:  use
> of _y'all_ indexes the speaker's desired familiarity with the listeners).
Hmm, I've never noticed that before, but now that you mention it, I
think that you're correct there.  It also, of course, indexes the
casualness, which is probably the reason for the familiarity issue.