Date:  Wed, 29 Oct 1997 22:02:53 -0500
From:  TERRY IRONS <t.irons[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MOREHEAD-ST.EDU>
Subject: "Hit" (was Appalacian [sic] languages)

Sam Jones was quite right in his reply to Lisa's query about the
Appalachian use of "hit" as a variable realization for the third person
singular neuter pronoun in English. "Hit" is the older form, and "it" is
an innovation from the earlier form.

The usage extends into the Appalachian areas of North Georgia. I also believe
it may persist in Ozark speech.

This example illustrates an intriguing phenomenon of language change. At
time T1, "hit" was the predominant form. At some later time T2, "hit"
competes with the new form "it." At a later time T3, "it" emerges as the
standard or prestige form. "Hit" persists in various speech
communities. The curiosity or quirk is that, at time T3, the
historically older form "hit" is reanalyzed by the larger speech
community as a degenerate form deviating from the standard.

What we see is that various rural regional dialects actually preserve older
forms of the language.

My question is, does the metathetical pronunciation of "ask"
characteristic of AAVE preserve an earlier form, or does it reflect a
contemporary performance transposition?



Virtually, Terry
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Terry Lynn Irons    t.irons[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]morehead-st.edu
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Snail Mail:       UPO 604 Morehead, KY 40351
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