Either and try to/and

[Steve K.]

On Thu, 20 Jul 2000, Rudolph C Troike wrote:

> I was surprised to hear Ron Butters call the /ay/ pronunciation of EITHER
> "unpretentious", since that has always seemed to me to be either genuine
> British or an affectation (ditto for /an/VELOPE instead of /en/VELOPE --
> this latter a school-influenced pseudo-French pronunciation).

I think it's somewhat regional. In Michigan, I only heard EEther except
among the pretentious. Then in Chicago, everyone I knew said AYther, and
after a while I started using it too. Now in Boston, I hear both, and I
think I've reverted to EEther, since here there seems to be a pretention
distinction, but this is all just of course, my personal observations.

I always thought it odd that the default in Chicago was AYther, but I
rarely heard EEther there.

--- Steve K.