End of ADS-L Digest - 14 Aug 1994 to 15 Aug 1994 ************************************************ There are 3 messages totalling 83 lines in this issue. Topics of the day: 1. you (3) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 16 Aug 1994 23:53:01 CDT From: "Donald M. Lance" Subject: Re: you As an extension to Dennis Preston's reaction to popular/"scientific" use of eye dialect.... It seems to me that in the past decade there has been a considerable increase in the use of "bad grammar" and four-letter words in quotations in newspaper articles. We who've been (mis)quoted by reporters are well aware of where many of the quotes come. The news people would argue that they're attempting to be more accurate, but stereotyping seems to me to have a higher priority than accuracy in these quotes. I'm a 'was' rather than 'wuz' speaker, so my reaction to this particular item of eye dialect is different from that of 'wuz' speakers. I mean that I use the low vowel in stressed 'was' but of course use a schwa when the word is in an unstressed position. From my own reaction, I suspect that some writers who use 'wuz' in eye dialect are indirectly commenting on their own "correct" pronuncation, the one taught by Miss Fidditch. Cross-dialectal messiness notwithstanding, the use of 'wuz' is one of the most useful eye dialect items that a writer can use to suggest dialect but not "heavy" dialect. DMLance