Date: Sun, 29 Jan 1995 16:01:47 -0500

From: Ellen Johnson ellenj[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]ATLAS.UGA.EDU

Subject: misc



Just logged on after an absence, hence the obsolete nature of some of the

following:



I (35, white female, Atlanta-born) use y'all, you-all, and you guys. I

suspect that y'all/you-all is a case of style-shifting. I use both you

guys and y'all with my students, I've noticed, so that could be an age

thing. I find myself increasingly using "gal" in sentences like "Who was

that gal he was with?" Has a slightly "hick" ring to my ear, but seems

like a good way to fill in the gap in the paradigm man/woman boy/girl/ guy/?

and avoids that offensive "girl" for adults I still hear all the time.



My mom was born in rural West Georgia, but she has /-r/. Still she makes

the 3-way distinction merry with /E/, marry with /ae/ (I have these) and

Mary with /e/ but the last does emphasize the first syllable inordinately

(CVCV)



Is "an dem" like the "mamanem" the local color columnists use?



Example of a pretty exotic place name in the media affecting pronunciation:

remember when the probe of what was formerly "your anus" changed the name

to the less taboo /yur[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]n[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]s/?



Finally, in a certain style marked for flippant, I would always say

bookoos with the -s, never without, e.g. "he's got bookoos OF money"



Oh yeah, I also say "what kind of coke do you want?"



Glad to be back, Ellen Johnson atlas[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]uga.cc.uga.edu