The Oregon

[Misha Schutt]

feldstei <feldstei at indiana.edu> writes:

>As a native Newarker, I wince at Oregon when the final vowel is a schwa,
>and I hate the syllabification Wi-scon-sin, which deprives the second
>syllable of its much needed aspirated [k].

Are you from New-urk, New Jersey, or New-ahrk, Delaware, or some other
Newark?  I know someone from Lancaster, Penna, who is offended at anything
but a schwa in the second syllable, whereas people from Lancaster, Calif.
look at you funny if you don't give it the secondary accent and the ae vowel.


Of course, being from the Northeastern U.S., I'd never use the vowel of
"gone" for Oregon, but I might be tempted to rhyme it with Autobahn;
Oregonians (certainly Californians) clearly don't know the difference between
the vowels of "cot" and "caught" which we intelligent Northeasterners
obstinately maintain.

Anyway, I don't think examples from American English place name dialectology
carry much weight beyond their own peculiar phenomena.  As with any neologism
(and let's face it, "the" with place names is fundamentally a lexical and not
a grammatical issue), we'll all get over the strangeness of it eventually,
some sooner than others.  Can we get over the discussion?

Misha Schutt
lately of Los Angeles, Calif.