[78-L] Deep Ellum Blues^

[Steven C. Barr]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Biel" <mbiel at mbiel.com>
> David Lennick wrote:
>> I seen a fillum in the thee-AY-ter.
> And did you have a co-cola?  When I moved here the guy across the street
> always said co-cola.  I said "No, it is co-ca-cola."  He replied,
> "That's what I said, co-cola."  And when I lived in Missouri I went to a
> cook-out at my landlord's place where he asked me if I wanted any
> sodeee-pop.  I thought he was kidding around and making fun of his own
> accent, but then I heard him the entire afternoon talking about 
> sodeee-pop.
>
> People often talk about the impossibility of understanding rap and
> ghetto-speak.  And Stan Freberg made fun of the R&B singers purposefully
> mumbling in Sha-boom.  Yet I felt at the time that so many Black singers
> were perfect in their enunciation, like Nat King Cole and even Frankie
> Lyman, much more than many White singers.  Elvis mumbled.  Fats Domino
> enunciated.
>
I recall having read an article in the Saturday Evening Post (in the 
fifties) in
which the author said that he could listen to anyone for a few minutes, and
then tell them WHERE they lived...and possibly previous residences...just
from their choices of words and how they pronounced them...!

For example, when I lived in Waynesville, Ill's., there was a small stream
a bit north of town. Its name was Kickapoo CREEK...but it was known
to us as "the crick" because that was how we pronounced "C-R-E-E-K!"

Later, the USAF put me in Fort Walton Beach, Florida...where I quickly
picked up (and still have) a typical "southern drawl!" Of course, Ft. Walton
was well north of "tourist Florida"...in fact, the standing local witticism 
was
that in our part of the state (the "panhandle") "F-L-A" stood for "<deleted>
Lower Alabama"...?!

...stevenc