Re: Horses' Asses and the Indo-European Homeland

--- In cybalist@... s.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/ !"  

Never heard that one, but it's a good one. My folks kept to maters, taters, mangers (sweet peppers), "churries", greasy greens (cress), ramps (a type of wild onion). They did eat biscuits --the best in the world; they "set" on "churs", "over thur" and "ra?chur", they worshed and lived "leben mile up the holler" on Cobb's Creek WV.

> 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

Unfortunately, it was an uncle by marriage from eastern KY. Fortunately I only have 5 fingers on every hand.