Date: Thu, 14 Dec 1995 00:49:00 -0500

From: ALICE FABER faber[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]HASKINS.YALE.EDU

Subject: co'cola



DInIs P said:



Good shot Rudy! Your comment awakened in me the memory (but see below for

its possible sociolinguistic inaccuracy) that the geminate pronunciation

was the one that I used (in the 40's in Louisville) and the open syllable

form was the one I associated with older (and, sad to say) 'hickish'

speakers. In fact, the nongeminate pronunciation was one I (and

schoolmates) used (along with 'hep' for 'help,' 'a'-prefixing, etc...) as a

stereotypical imitation.



On one of the Usenet groups I waste time with (have to do *something* when the

ADS digest has fewer than 65 messages on root beer and the like), I noticed

the spelling "coke cola" in a posting that appeared to have been proofread.

Alas, there were no clues as to the poster's home region, but this certainly

seems like a non-linguist's attempt to represent a geminate.



Alice Faber

faber[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]haskins.yale.edu