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