Staunton, VA

[Herb Stahlke]

This would make sense, given the general fronting of low back
vowels in Scots somewhat before that time.  Note Scots "laird" for
"lord", or the Ontario town "Kincardine", pronounced [kIn'kerdn]
vs. the typical US tourist's [kInkar'din].

Herb Stahlke

>>> drew.danielson at CMU.EDU 12/04/00 06:01PM >>>
From
http://www.stauntonva.org/History/Staunton_Trivia/staunton_trivia.html


"Staunton (pronounced STAN-ton) was named for Lady Rebecca
Staunton,
wife of the Colonial Governor of Virginia William Gooch. No one
really
knows why Staunton is pronounced the way that it is. Some believe
that
the pronunciation is because "that is the way that the family
pronounced
the name (although Staunton descendants pronounce the "u".)  It
has also
been suggested that since most area settlers were Scots-Irish
and
Germans and not English like the Staunton name that when Staunton
was
pronounced by those with Irish and/or German accents, it sounded
like it
did not contain a "u".  It is anyone's guess!"


David Bergdahl wrote:
>
> "Ironically, there's a city called Staunton not too far up the
road from
> Buena Vista, but they pronounce that name /stan t'n/ as in
Elizabeth
> Cady Stanton, rather than /stahn t'n/ as one would expect based
on the
> spelling.  Maybe Appalachian Virginians have some confusion
over the
> phonetic value of the letter U... :)"
>
> Staunton, founded 1732, is the birthplace of Pres. Wilson so a
bio might
> comment on the pronunciation of the name.
> -- db
> ___________________________________________________________
> David Bergdahl  einstein at frognet.net     tel: (740) 592-1617
> home page:      http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~bergdahl

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