Date: Wed, 24 Jan 1996 14:05:41 -0400
From: "Bethany K. Dumas, U of Tennessee" dumasb[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]UTKVX.UTK.EDU
Subject: Re: cheap folks
Rudy T. said:
Rest assured that "chinchy" was the only form I heard or used growing
up at the southern tip of Texas. I've seen "chintzy" in print, and perhaps
heard it, though I can't recall from whom or where. I suppose "chintzy", on
the face of it, offers some etymological sense, but I always thought it was
a mistaken version of "chinchy" (Don Lance and I know that South Texas English
is the purest to be found). A related form used there is "pinchy", usually
pronounced with a somewhat Hispanicized raised /iy/.
Me too!
Bethany
(who is not from the southern tip, but near there. I was born in Corpus
Christi, lived in the area bounded by CC, SA, Houston, Beaumont my first
22 years)
Bethany K. Dumas, J.D., Ph.D. | Applied Linguistics, Language & Law
Dep't of English, UT, Knoxville | EMAIL: dumasb[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]utk.edu
415 McClung Tower | (423) 974-6965 | FAX (423) 974-6926
Knoxville, TN 37996-0430 | See Webpage at http://hamlet.la.utk.edu
Rest assured that "chinchy" was the only form I heard or used growing
up at the southern tip of Texas. I've seen "chintzy" in print, and perhaps
heard it, though I can't recall from whom or where. I suppose "chintzy", on
the face of it, offers some etymological sense, but I always thought it was
a mistaken version of "chinchy" (Don Lance and I know that South Texas English
is the purest to be found). A related form used there is "pinchy", usually
pronounced with a somewhat Hispanicized raised /iy/.
--Rudy Troike (rtroike[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]ccit.arizona.edu)