Date:  Wed, 25 Oct 1995 07:31:26 CDT

From:  "Donald M. Lance" <ENGDL[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MIZZOU1.MISSOURI.EDU>

Subject: Re: skraw/skring



I'm surethat srimp (shrimp), sreveport (Shreveport), etc is a regional

feature -- subset of Southern. I think this item is covered in LAGS

but don't remember details and am not sufficiently motivated at the

moment to look into it. The shr/skr- may also be regional, overlapping

in some ways with shr/sr-. Both clusters seem to have language-development

implications ("Baby talk" residue), but where the usage is regional the

Baby talk matter is NOT causal. In my classes in both Texas and Missouri

I've had students who found shr- to be tongue-twisterish. And those of

you who are fans of "American Tongues" The Video will recall the humorous

segment when the makers of the video asked Southerners to say 'schlepp'.

And German palatalization fo /s/ in intitial clusters is not a causal

factor in this item.           DMLance, U of MO