They say "Ih-slip", I say "Aye-slip"

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Tue Apr 10 14:37:05 UTC 2007


At 12:15 AM -0400 4/10/07, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>Heard twice on Boston radio news broadcasts today, "Ih-slip" (as in
>Long Island).  (The news was new air service between the two, uh, localities.)
>
>Can someone still in the New York metropolitan area tell me whether
>it is still "Aye-slip", as I learned to pronounce it in my youth?
>
>Joel
>
I no longer live on L.I., but I hear Islip mentioned on weather
reports and airline commercials (Islip is mostly famous for its
airport), and it's always EYE-slip.  If there's any variation, I
would guess it might be in voicing the fricative, but never in laxing
the vowel.

LH (Long Beach (L.I.) High School, class of '61)

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