Re: Many a H. A. Gleason


"Peter T. Daniels" <grammatim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote ...

> Douglas G. Kilday wrote:
> >
> > "António Marques" <m.ap@xxxxxxx> wrote ...
> >
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > I have a translation of 'An Introduction to Descriptive Linguistics',
by
> > > H. A. Gleason, Jr. The sleeve says he studied at the NY State College
of
> > > Agriculture, having eventually taken his PhD in Linguistics and moved
to
> > > Toronto.
> > >
> > > Now, there was a remarkable botanist named Henry Allan Gleason
> > > (http://www.goshen.edu/bio/Musci/Alpha3.html), also from NY. Does any
> > > one know if they're related?
> >
> > I would be surprised. HAG Jr apparently grew up in the South. He uses
the
> > schwa-like nucleus in words like <bird> and, when reading aloud to folks
> > back home, automatically substitutes <you all> for <you> when the plural
is
> > indicated.
>
> Do you know him from Hartford, Toronto, or El Paso? I don't recall his
> having any particular regional characteristics, but I was only in his
> presence for a week. (I don't think he was at any of the three LACUSes I
> went to.)

I don't personally know him, of course, but passages implying a Southern
upbringing can be found in IntroDesc Ling (rev. ed., 1961), esp. pp. 426-7:

"... For example, I commonly use /yúwOHl/ as a plural pronoun contrasting
with the singular /yúw/. This is restricted to colloquial situations. ...
Not infrequently when reading aloud I say /yúwOHl/ when the context demands
it, though <you> is written. ..."

More remarkable perhaps is G.'s explanation of code numbers for Cree
paradigms on p. 117, where he renders 2p singular as 'thou', but 2p plural
as 'you all'. I can't imagine a non-Southerner using anything but 'ye' in
this situation.

After all this discussion in the thread, we still haven't established
whether the linguist is the son of the botanist. I am still doubtful, as
the botanist seems to have had no connection to the South. The linguist,
however, could well be identical to the Appalachian Baptist fellow who
sometimes goes by "Allan".



.

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