I say...Lusitani-ay

[Jonathan Lighter]

Non-prestige exx., but the pronunciation in question was apparently widespread. In George Eliot's, the character Solomon is described as "old":

  1837 Samuel Lover _Legends and Stories of Ireland_  (London: Baldwin & Cradock) 60: Well, I say I was waitin' for some ship or other from Amerikay.

  1849_Blackwood's Edinburgh Mag._  (Oct.) 439: Then, dammee, it's the black coast of Africay, and no mistake. Ibid. 448: All the way over to Africay.

  1853 Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton _My Novel_ (Rpt. Phila.: J.B. Lippincott, 1865) 38: How I should like to see Dick again ! But I s'pose he's still in Amerikay.

  1871-72 George Eliot_Middlemarch_ (N.Y.: Barnes & Noble, 2003) 321: "There's more ways than one of being a fool," said Solomon. "I shan't leave my money to be poured down the sink, and I shan't leave it to fondlings from Africay."

  1887  Rosa Mulholland, in _Catholic World_ XLIV (Mar.) 841:  Won't ye tell us how ye liked Amerikay?

  1892  R. F. Murray, in _Living Age_ CXCIII (Apr. 9) 66: A pleasant little island of the coast of Africay / ...and it's there you'll have to stay.

  ca1946  in Norman Cazden _Folk Songs of the Catskills_ (Albany, N.Y.: SUNY Press, 1982) 431: To the burning shores of Africay where the sugar cane does grow.

  1989 Suzy Platt _Respectfully Quoted_ (Rpt. N.Y.: Barnes & Noble, 1993) xiii: Lincoln had several eccentricities of pronunciation that attracted attention at the time: he always said "America" as if it were spelled "Amerikay."

  Earlier exx. are no doubt findable.  I have also frequently seen "Amerikee," now that I think of it.  This suggests that the actual sound in these cases varied between [E:] and [I].  I suppose "barred i" and even an oyut-and-out [i] were also possible.

  Presumably Matthew Arnold (raised in Middlesex) had [E:] in both "say" and "Lusitania."  This would create a rhyme without bathos.

  JL


Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Charles Doyle
Subject: Re: I say...Lusitani-ay
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Yes, from eastern Texas, I was probably in college before I realized "Ioway" was not a standard pronunciation (though I think I knew of both pronunciations). Whether or not it was spelled "Ohio."

--Charlie
______________________________________________

---- Original message ----
>Date: Mon, 9 Oct 2006 00:19:38 -0400
>From: Wilson Gray
>Subject: Re: I say...Lusitani-ay
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
>
>FWIW, "Ioway" is the usual pronunciation of Iowa used in BE (and in
>other Southern-based dialects?). There is or once was a U. of Iowa
>fight song, "We're Men of Ioway," sung to the tune of "Didn't He
>Ramble?"
>
>-Wilson

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