LINGUISTICS HAS ALWAYS INTERESTED ME

Ever since my 301 Linguistics instructor asked me one day in class if I was from Australia. When I told him, "No. I'm from Mt. Vernon," he felt bad and the class laughed.

I felt pretty good about it. He said it was the way I said,"What." I don't know if I sounded a dipthong or epiglotal stop that was associated with the Aussies, but I can assure you that I don't sound that way today.

Why my Southern drawl/twang got more pronounced as I got older, I don't know. But whereas most people used to think my wife sounded as if she was from Alabama, now they think I do, too. So do I. When I catch myself on tape, I can hardly believe how I drag words out. "Did Grant play outside today?' becomes especially long with an emphasis on plaaaay and todaaaay.

Why and how did I change? I don't know. I just know when people ask me where I grew up and I say Illinois, they look puzzled at me expecting to hear "byaack" for back and speech punctuated with more nasal tones. When I tell them Mt. Vernon is closer to Nashville, Tennessee, than Chicago, they still seem puzzled.

Of course, that's only part of what appeals to me about linguistics. The way different parts of the country use different words or expressions for the same thing. A hamburger dressed, a hamburger with all the fixins, a hamburger run through the garden, a hamburger with the works or "woiks", a hamburger with everything on it.

The plural for "you." "Y'all" to some "you all" to others; "you ins," to some in Mt. Vernon: "you's guys," to others on the East coast, but generally "you guys," whether mixed gender or not.

Another area is slang. About the time I get current, I'm passe. I had to explain the terms "Props" and "Dis" to our Sunday School class last week. That should tell you how out of it us Boomers are in the Old West.

When Mav Jerry Stackhouse got suspended for a cheapshot on Shaq in Game 4, his coach Mr. Avery Johnson called the penalty "a bunch of baloney." No obscenity, no gutter language--just baloney. That's another kind of linguistics I like. By a class act, too.