Date: Mon, 10 Nov 1997 12:54:59 -0500

From: Beverly Flanigan FLANIGAN[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]OUVAXA.CATS.OHIOU.EDU

Subject: Re: NEW TOPIC: Slang in the Movies!



Jim, how do you define slang? As a Minnesotan, I found nothing in

"Fargo" which suggested a distinctive slang (except, perhaps, "you

bet"). Aren't you talking about dialect--both accent and, to a lesser

degree, lexicon? Come to think of it, "you bet" has been used as long

as I can remember (and that's a _long_ time), which suggests it's not

slang, i.e., it's not ephemeral, age-graded, etc. The same goes for

"real well," "pretty good," etc. These are indeed part of the regional

vernacular, i.e., dialect.