What do pros do ...?

[Tom Zurinskas]

according to m-w.com (phonetics don't copy/paste well)

Main Entry: mis·pro·nounce
Pronunciation: \ˌmis-prə-ˈnau̇n(t)s\
Function: transitive verb
Date: 1593    : to pronounce incorrectly or in a way regarded as incorrect

One would need a pretty strong criterion of correctness I assume.

Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL5+
See truespel.com - and the 4 truespel books plus "Occasional Poems" at authorhouse.com.

> Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2008 13:11:10 -0400
> From: hwgray at GMAIL.COM
> Subject: What do pros do ...?
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Wilson Gray
> Subject: What do pros do ...?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> When they find different pronunciations in, for all practical
> purposed, exactly the same dialectological environment? For example:
>
> I have a cousin named "Marie," who is the niece of my grandparents. My
> grandfather, a native of Marshall, Texas, pronounced this name as
> you'd expect: "muh REE" [m@ 'ri]. However, my grandmother, a native of
> Longview, Texas, who moved to Marshall about five years after marrying
> my grandfather, always referred to Marie as "muh RYE" [m@ 'raI]. If
> you stand on your tiptoes, you can see Longview from Marshall. (The
> term, "mother tongue" having a basis in reality, my brother and I knew
> Marie as "cudn muh RYE," ignoring our grandfather's pronunciation.)
>
> Another example is the pronunciation of the late, great bluesman,
> Floyd Dixon, whose only recorded compilation is entitled, "Marshall,
> Texas, Is My Home." In his most famous work, "Dallas Blues, he
> pronounces Dallas only as [dae at l@s], close to the sE pronunciation.
> Yet, the Marshall - and probably general Deep-Southern - pronunciation
> of Dallas is [daeLIs], with the second syllable sounding the same as
> the first syllable of "listen" ['LIs n] as though the name of the city
> were spelled "Dall_i_s."
>
> -Wilson
> --
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -----
> -Sam'l Clemens
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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