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