Re: Horses' Asses and the Indo-European Homeland

From: david_russell_watson
Message: 60383
Date: 2008-09-27

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Rick McCallister <gabaroo6958@...>
wrote:
>
> David
> The "eggs" example is the way some of my cousins in SW West
> Virginia speak. I say /Egz/. I'm guessing it's somehow
> related to the first step in Brian's examples.
> I have also heard /ey@...@/ BION!
> You also hear "God" as /gaa@.../, /gaaw@.../, etc.

Oh, yes. I have relatives in Texas and Georgia both,
and my Daddy is from Kentucky, or "Kentuck" as they
call it there, so I'm familiar with a lot of those
pronunciations.

In fact I've been pondering some of the oddities of
my father's dialect for years. You wouldn't happen
to know what the origin of /sku:nskIn/, which is my
father's family's word for biscuit, is, would you?
I assume that the first syllable has something to do
with 'scone'. If the biscuits were good they would
say "Those are some larpin' tarpin' /sku:nskInz/!"

> Another thing is in "agitated" or "emotional" public speaking
> when a "ghosted" vowel, usually a schwa is added to the final
> syllable. Jimmy Swaggart, who was my uncle's cousin (as was
> also Larry Flynt) was famous for referring to the "Holy Ghost-
> uh"

That's quite a family tree you have there!

David