Re: Dialect and register
From: | Thomas R. Wier <trwier@...> |
Date: | Sunday, December 29, 2002, 23:57 |
Quoting John Cowan <jcowan@...>:
> Davis, Iain E. scripsit:
>
> > In the U.S. the meaning of coke, soda, cola, and pop varies by region.
>
> Sure does. [snip link to dialect survey]
My favorite question was "What do you call the act of covering a house
or area in front of a house with toilet paper?". It was interesting
to see (and confirmed my suspicions) that Houston is in fact the only
major city in the country where this act is called "wrapping".
<http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~golder/dialect/staticmaps/q_106.html>
=========================================================================
Thomas Wier "I find it useful to meet my subjects personally,
Dept. of Linguistics because our secret police don't get it right
University of Chicago half the time." -- octogenarian Sheikh Zayed of
1010 E. 59th Street Abu Dhabi, to a French reporter.
Chicago, IL 60637