pron of Worcester, MA

[Wilson Gray]

FWIW, Latin Grammar by Robert J. Henle, SJ, the one that I used in
high school, gave three possible pronunciation schemes (using only C
in my examples), which the compiler called

Roman : C = [k] in all positions
_Italian_ : C = [tS] before I, E, AE, OE; [k] elsewhere
Traditional : C = [s] (ditto)

That is, Alison's supposition is almost certainly correct.

For reasons possibly known only to the Pope, we used the "Italian"
pronunciation at the altar, but the "Traditional" pronunciation in
class.

-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.
-----
-Mark Twain



On Fri, Feb 27, 2009 at 10:36 AM, Alison Murie <sagehen7470 at att.net> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Â  Â  Â  Alison Murie <sagehen7470 at ATT.NET>
> Subject: Â  Â  Â Re: pron of Worcester, MA
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Pronouncing /c/ as "ch" Â doesn't necessarily imply the mistaken
> insertion of an /h/, since we have a number of words borrowed from
> Italian that exhibit this feature, as does church Latin (influenced, I
> suppose, by Italian). Â BTW, I've known a number of people who give
> "Worcestershire" a full-blown five-syllable pronunciation:
> "Worchestershyer Sauce."
> AM
> ~~~~~~~~~~~
> On Feb 26, 2009, at 11:43 PM, James Harbeck wrote:
>
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>> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster: Â  Â  Â  James Harbeck <jharbeck at SYMPATICO.CA>
>> Subject: Â  Â  Â Re: pron of Worcester, MA
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> As a slight digression, the thing I always found most interesting
>> about Worcester when I lived in Boston was not its pronunciation --
>> which I was used to from Worcestershire sauce -- but the fact that it
>> was common for people to explain, "It's spelled Worchester but
>> pronounced Wista." Not "Wor-cest-er" but "Wor-chest-er." Quite a lot
>> of people seemed to have the definite idea that there was an h after
>> the c. Similar, I imagine, to the common idea in Toronto that there's
>> a g after then n in Eglinton.
>>
>> James Harbeck.
>>
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