Date:    Mon, 9 Mar 1998 08:55:40 -0500
<br>From:    "Dennis R. Preston"  preston[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]PILOT.MSU.EDU 
<br>Subject: Re: Distnc. btw. "crick"&"creek", GREASY/GREAZY
<br>
<br>Of course the noun is always 'grease' and the verb 'greaze' (no matter how
<br>'greazy/greasy' the 'greazed' object turns out.
<br>
<br>I am sympathetic, however, to the likelihood that the 'greasy/greazy'
<br>distinction in my own speech is late-learned, and, I thought, perhaps even
<br>idiosyncratic, but now I have heard it from others, so I am inclined to
<br>believe its origins might have been in some more general form of
<br>associative hypercorrection ('things in the North are "fancier" or some
<br>such crap').
<br>
<br>dInIs (who would be nonplussed to find that he had been trapped by the
<br>overtly prestigious)
<br>
<br> My graduate student from SW Virginia (Covington) would have to agree with
<br> Ron: she says really oily hands (from car grease, for ex.) are 'greazy,'
<br> while messy food plates, french fries, etc. are just 'greasy.'  She adds,
<br> though, that the distinction may be based in type of grease (car vs. food)
<br> rather than degree.  One would also 'greaze' the car, but with 'grease'--a
<br> distinction no So/SoMid speaker disputes, am I right?
<br> 
<br> 
<br> At 07:52 PM 3/5/98 -0500, you wrote:
<br>  Ron of Iowa wrote:
<br>  
<br>   One thing that surprises me here is that folks say that GREASY and GREAZY
<br> are
<br>   semantically distinct to the extent that GREAZY things are GREASY, but
<br>   intensely so, Is this true elsewhere in the South?
<br>  
<br>  Nonsense! (Unless, of course, one is talking about the amount of snake oil
<br>  one has lubricated one's words with.)
<br>  
<br>  Bethany of SE Texas
<br>  
<br>
<br>Dennis R. Preston
<br>Department of Linguistics and Languages
<br>Michigan State University
<br>East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
<br>preston[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]pilot.msu.edu
<br>Office: (517)353-0740
<br>Fax: (517)432-2736
<br>