Date: Sat, 4 Dec 1993 21:07:48 -0700

From: Rudy Troike RTROIKE[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]ARIZVMS.BITNET

Subject: Re: Sounding Northern



Us Valleyites (not San Fernando) stick together. One of my major

sociolinguistic handicaps at the University of Texas (in those days it was

The University, no nonsense about "at Austin") was not "sounding like a Texan".

Don Lance actually sounds a bit more Texan than I do (maybe something that

gets in the water in the river between Mission and Brownsville; I know the

boron level is higher). While I was at UT, I regularly asked classes where

they thought I was from, and uniformly got answers like Ohio, Illinois, Iowa.

However, they were greatly reassured when I told them I pronounced pin and

pen alike, and regularly used you-all . But it was still embarrassing to

my Texan nationalism not to be recognized as a native. Nevertheless, I concur

that Valley English is a good candidate for a standard prestige variety.

--Rudy Troike