Date: Sun, 11 Jun 1995 17:24:49 -0500
From: "Bethany Dumas, UTK" DUMASB[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]UTKVX.UTK.EDU
Subject: Re: meddle
Joan, on the NCTE tape on nonstandard dialects ca. 1974 there is a
long stretc (w/transcript in the accompanying book) in which the
young female African-American speaker talks about somebody's being
"meddled." The sentence is something like "And they was meddlin' her. ANd
they was just meddling her." In the context, the sense does not seem to be
directly or explicitly sexual, but it's the sort of sense that could come from
a generlaly sexual use of the word. In the context the situation involves girls "meddling" another girl.
Bethany