Word: tinkler
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Inman-Ebel's clinical tone enrages some people. "What's wrong with forward tongue carry?" says John Tinkler, who teaches history of the English language at the University of Tennessee. "It doesn't sound like Indy-goddam-ana." Tinkler is a vast, round man with silver hair, dark skin and flashing, protuberant eyes. He describes his accent as "educated rural Southern," the language college graduates in his family have spoken for generations. He wishes Inman-Ebel would attack the stereotypes and the attitudes, instead of the accent. "She's teaching people how not to talk like folks," he says. "That...
...There is no standard American pronunciation," asserts Tinkler. But Inman- Ebel will not be dissuaded by her critics. She says what she and her clients do is nobody's business: "Why are some people concerned that other people change their accents or their hair or the way they dress? You would think someone were pounding on their door, saying, 'Hey, you sound funny, I can help you.' That's not what's happening." Some of Inman-Ebel's clients are nonetheless uneasy about wanting her help. One man, fretful that people would think he was betraying his heritage, forbid...
...John Tinkler sniffs. "Hell," he says, drawing the word out into two syllables ripe with reluctance and dismay. "If someone really and truly believes that his speech is keeping him from getting along in the world, I suppose he must change it. But he isn't paying any attention to how John T. Lupton talks. He's the fellow who sold his Coca-Cola bottling franchise here for a billion and a half...
...thought warms Tinkler momentarily. "Most of the big folk in Chattanooga," he reflects, "still talk like Chattanoogans...
...Cornelia Tinkler...