Date: Thu, 11 Aug 1994 08:02:51 -0500

From: Natalie Maynor maynor[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]RA.MSSTATE.EDU

Subject: Of Cats and Eye Dialect



I remember thinking that all cats were female and all dogs male until

I came home from playing next door and found that our dog had just had

puppies. It took me longer to find out that ponies weren't baby horses.



Re eye dialect: I do consider spellings like "whut" and "wuz" eye dialect,

even though they're artificial in that the spelling doesn't really represent

(to me) a different pronunciation. They're usually accompanied by other

features intended to represent dialects spoken by uneducated characters and

serve more or less as symbols.

--Natalie (maynor[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]ra.msstate.edu)