Date:  Mon, 21 Nov 1994 13:04:12 EST

From:  Wayne Glowka <wglowka[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MAIL.GAC.PEACHNET.EDU>

Subject: Re: song lyrics



>    My own favorite mishearing was when a linguist friend in grad

>school (I won't tell her name, but she wrote an excellent phonetic/

>dialectological diss., also in coal-mining territory...) heard the

>then-current Eric Clapton hit "Lay Down Sally" as "Way Down South".

>Where Clapton learned to vocalize his L's is anybody's guess!

>    --peter patrick



That's what I hear every time I hear the song. I have to force myself to

hear the right thing. Salikoko Mufwene once remarked (in a very good

article on Gullah) that native speakers have some means of supplying

important information that is actually missing in the phonology of

utterances. I've never had that means when it comes to songs. Just try

figuring out the words to the Flint Stone theme song--"courtesy of Fred's

two feet"--what?





Wayne Glowka

Professor of English

Director of Research and Graduate Student Services

Georgia College

Milledgeville, GA 31061

912-453-4222

wglowka[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]mail.gac.peachnet.edu

BITNET Address: Wglowka[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]USCN