Date: Fri, 8 Mar 1996 09:30:39 -0500

From: "Dennis R. Preston" preston[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]PILOT.MSU.EDU

Subject: Re: Inter-variety miscommunication



AHA! David's Strohs story (below), reminds me of an even more touching one.

While I was in Poland in the early '70's, I once returned to western New

York with the director of the institute where I worked in Pozanan for a

student and faculty exchange business trip. I took my Polish friend to a

'local bar,' walked up to the bartender, and, wanting the visitor to try a

local brew, asked for 'two Kochs.' Now, any western NYer can tell you that

the native pronunciation of Kochs is 'cooks,' but I assume my new-found

linguistic skills in Polish (and perhaps even the presence of a Polish

speaker) led me to say [koxs]; imagine the surprise (need I say terror?) of

my Polish friend and me when we ended up with two Cokes! (ARRRRRRGH!)



Dennis Preston'ski



From: NAME: David Bergdahl

FUNC: English

TEL: (614) 593-2783 BERGDAHL[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]A1[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]LANCE

To: MX%"ADS-L[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]uga.cc.uga.edu"[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]OUVAX[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MRGATE[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]OUVAX



On inter-variety miscommunication:



When I visited Athens, OH from Syracuse, NY with my wife and child to

find housing Easter week 1968, it was a warm 60ish day and at the OU Inn where

we were having dinner, my wife and I ordered two planters' punches. They came

without straws. I went to the bar and asked for two straws for our drinks and

the bartender said he couldn't give 'em to me, but our waitress did. After

finally finding the waitress and explaining our difficulty, she returned with

two bottles of Stroh's beer!.



(Athens has low back vowel mergers and coming from L.I. I don't)



BERGDAHL[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]OUVAXA.CATS.OHIOU.EDU

David Bergdahl

Ohio University/Athens

"Where Appalachia meets the Midwest"--Anya Briggs



Dennis R. Preston

Department of Linguistics and Languages

Michigan State University

East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA

preston[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]pilot.msu.edu

Office: (517)432-1235

Fax: (517)432-2736