Southernisms (was Re: Genitive relationships (WAS: Construct States))

"Raymond A. Brown" wrote:

> I've always understood that the modern 'I was going...' derived from the
> older and now largely obsolete 'I was a-going...' (I believe such forms
> still survive in some parts of the US - tho maybe that is another Brit.
> myth :)
Nope.  It's true, but it's extant now only in the most rural and isolated
regions of the country, like Apalachia.  I know that it used to be very
common in the South, but with the advent of better communication and
education, and the development of a quasiofficial Standard dialect, it has
disappeared almost everywhere.  To probably about the same
extent that nonrhoticness has in the region (which, too, used to be
universal).

Some other interesting Southern idiosyncracies:

Phonology:
(1) [E] / [nasal] --> [I];  [&] / [nasal] --> [E]
(I believe this is also common in many Western varieties
of American English, too)
(2) final consonant cluster reduction: [lEft] --> [lEf]
(3) [ai] --> [a:]
(4) [l] / _p# or _f# --> [p] or [f]:  [hElp] --> [hEp]
(5) [l] / _k --> palatal lateral approximant
(6) loss of [n], and nasalization on preceding vowel
(7) [lr] --> [rr]:  "a'right" (except in careful speech)

I've personally noticed only items 1, 3, 5, 6, and 7.  I personally
only have 1, 5, and 7, and, if I'm tired, 3.

Morphology/lexical items:

(8) [In] for -ing: nearly universal, as I suspect in many areas of the
country (if not the world)
(9) _y'all_, of course, which can imply (for me at least)
paucality, where some phrasal unit like _[Al@yAl]_
serves for more than that.  The genitive is generally
_y'all's_, as y'all've seen from my posts, but I've actually
heard _y'all'ses_ <dreadful shudder>.

I know this last exists in Britain too, but is very much stigmatized.

I know, I know, it's all offtopic. Oh well.  Start a new one I guess.

=======================================================
Tom Wier <artabanos@...>
ICQ#: 4315704   AIM: Deuterotom
Website: <http://www.angelfire.com/tx/eclectorium/>
"Cogito ergo sum, sed credo ergo ero."

There's nothing particularly wrong with the
proletariat. It's the hamburgers of the
proletariat that I have a problem with. - Alfred Wallace
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