childhood rhymes

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>Just for the sake of accuracy: We always "pronounced the g."

But Jerome Foster and Mark Mandel (if I understood him right) remember
"spaldeen" without the "-ng".

Another peculiarity: RHUD gives the pronunciation of "spaldeen" with
last-syllable stress! Does this match the recollections of the list folks?

(I was never a New Yorker so I never heard "spaldeen" myself.)

>Also, the "aw" in "Spaulding" is not the /a/" in "spalpeen."

I would only speculate that the SPELLING might have been modeled on "spalpeen".

However, FWIW, MWCD10 on-line does give a pronunciation of "spalpeen" (as
an option) with the first vowel as in "Spalding" (/spOlpin/ as well as
/sp&lpin/).

-- Doug Wilson