<html>
<body>
<font size=3>At 7/26/2012 10:41 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">On Thu, Jul 26, 2012 at 9:21 PM,
Joel S. Berson <Berson@att.net> quoted/wrote:<br>
> > ['lEm@nst@r]<br>
> 'lEm-in-st@r<br><br>
You mean, it's not "Leo Minister"?<br><br>
But, seriously, folks, the distinction between the two
transcriptions<br>
ranges from zero to none.</font></blockquote><br>
It's the difference between "minster" (<font size=3>U.S.
<a href="??">/ m nst r/</a> [small cap I]) and "Munster", as in
the cheese* (U.S. <a href="??">/ m nst r/ </a>[upside-down e]).
Copied from the OED, but my email client doesn't pass some
characters. And I don't know what to use instead of small cap
I.<br><br>
The first correspondent I asked this evening -- a native Cantabridgian,
has lived in the Boston area all her life -- also could distinguish, and
rejected the "lEm@nst@r" (Munster) pronunciation.<br><br>
* Although the Leominster Big Cheese perhaps is Mayor Mazarella.<br><br>
</font>Joel<br>
</body>
</html>
------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org