Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 14, No. 15.
Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
<http://www.princeton.edu/~mccarty/humanist/>
<http://www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/>
Date: Tue, 16 May 2000 20:17:10 +0100
From: "Tarvers, Josephine K." <tarversj@exchange.winthrop.edu>
Subject: Re: 14.0008: Misspellings
>From one of my linguist friends...
Jo Koster Tarvers
Department of English
Winthrop University
Rock Hill SC 29733-0001
803-323-4557
tarversj@winthrop.edu
http://faculty.winthrop.edu/tarversj
-----Original Message-----
From: Jack W. Weaver [mailto:WEAVERJ@winthrop.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, May 10, 2000 10:15 AM
To: tarversj
Jo, 10 May
The Humanist Discussion Group's queries are linguistically interesting. I
would suggest that a professional British linguist (e.g., Michael
Montgomery) be consulted, despite the fact that the query seems to have
originated in London. "Mabe" is simply a word spelled as it sounds,
however. I've seen it spelled that way and also "maby," in the mountains of
North Carolina. I see it as a semi-literate rendering, more than English as
a Second Language, however. Ulster speech might pronounce it that way, too.
It would be nice to know the names of the writers, to see if they really
are of French derivation.
"Understanding your predicament of trust and how difficult it is to explain
in good faith to you about your" appears to be an attempt to use
quasi-legal language, very likely (again) acquired by ear. "Relized" for
'realized' sounds like Ulster/American, or mountain speech, too. So does
'there (for "their") own business.' Could those Louisianians have
originated in Tennessee or Kentucky? Having grown up in the mountains of
N.C., I can understand them quite well. But I heard the same sounds in the
Ards Peninsula in County Down. A learned Queens University of Belfast
geographer pointed out a stone object to me by saying, "See that tare
{tower} in the field yonder?" I might as well have been talking to someone
in Boone, N.C.
As you can see, I can't produce any specific documents. Michael Montgomery
might be able to do so. His E-Mail address is "N270053@vm.sc.edu." If you
don't know him, mention my name with your query.
Best,
jack Weaver
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