I say "Lusitan-i-ay"

[Laurence Horn]

On Aug 20, 2014, at 7:46 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

> In this thread from many years ago I noted that Matthew Arnold formally
> rhymed  "Lusitania" with "I say" back in 1879.
> 
> Here's another, if less formal example of the same principal.
> 
> Fiddlin' John Carson and His Virgina Reelers recorded a song about the
> Civil War called "Dixie Division" in 1924.  You can very distinctly hear
> Fiddlin' John a-singin' "Georgia, Alabama, Flori-day."

It was only later, when they discovered fluoridation was a Commie plot, that they changed it to Flori-duh.

LH

> 
> That's the normal "George-uh" and "Alabam-uh," Not "Georgy" or "Alabammy."
> 
> Go, as they say, figger.
> 
> JL
> 
> -- 
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org