Date: Sun, 10 Dec 1995 17:01:32 -0500

From: "Suzanne Legault: English" E7E4LEG[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]TOE.TOWSON.EDU

Subject: Re: /w/ and /hw/



Dear Bob:



Now that's a "scholarly" response--one that my impressionistic musings

didn't deserve, but for which I am grateful, since the source of that spelling

has been nagging at me for the past week. I seem to remember it as occurring

in the context of "revival rhetoric," in the non-coastal South, e.g. "gone

a-hoorin' after the heathen." The fact that it's Irish makes sense, given

the 19th century Scots-Irish influx.

Thanks for your response.



Suzanne Legault

________________________________

On Saturday, Dec. 9, Bob wrote:



Suzanne,



Sorry I took so long to respond to this. You'll find "hoor" in Brian

Friel's play _Translations_ which is set in early 19th century Ireland.

Late in the play, English soldiers march through a corn field prompting

an angry response from the owner as one character tells us: "And Barney

Petey just out of his bed and running after them in his drawers: 'You

hoors you! Get out of my corn, you hoors you!'" (III, ll. 113-15).

Clearly not a term of endearment.



Bob Haas

University of North Carolina at Greensboro

rahaas[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]hamlet.uncg.edu



On Mon, 4 Dec 1995, Suzanne Legault: English wrote:



Rudy:



Re:

Interesting, but not surprisingly, I've

never heard the /u:/ (or /uw/, as I prefer to write it).

Rudy



Have you ever seen the "dialectal" spelling hoor which I always assumed

represented /u:/?



Suzanne