Heard on the Judges

[William Salmon]

> "Radiator" pronounced to rhyme with "gladiator."
>
> I've heard this pronunciatiion in the wild from only three people,
> all black, all male, and all  from either Virginia or Pennsylvania.
> Two of them were much older than I am and are, therefore, dead. The
> third person, from Pennsylvania, whom I heard today, appearing to be
> about fifty, was also quite mature...

i am familiar with this pronunciation from my childhood in eastern
pennsylvania, where it was associated (in my mind) with older
speakers -- my pennsylvania dutch grandmother, for one.  all these
people were white.

surely this is in DARE Vol. IV.  (i don't have easy access to DARE in
the office where i am now.)

[WS]
I haven't heard "radiator" pronounced this way, but I have heard "radio"
pronounced with the low front vowel, so to rhyme with "daddy-o". This in
East Texas.

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