City Names

[Dennis R. Preston]

Although she is proud of her Sicilian heritage, my wife (the former Carol
Guagliardo) finds some comfort in not hearing the disasters of her name now
that she is a Preston.

She reports some modifications that even suggested that speakers looked no
further than the first two or three letters.

dInIs

>I believe our dear Brett Favre was born and raised in Mississippi and
>brought his unusual pronunciation with him. Certainly, Green Bay residents
>stumbled over the pronunciation in the early days, just as other people
>still do.
>
>French names are not the only ones with a variety of mispronunciations--we
>don't even want to get started Spanish names! As a high school student of
>Spanish I and II, I was shocked to hear La Junta, CO, pronounced with the
>English J!
>
>Amy
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Dennis R. Preston <preston at PILOT.MSU.EDU>
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Date: Friday, December 03, 1999 5:51 PM
>Subject: Re: City Names
>
>
>>How could y'all forget Bret Favre (FAHRV) of the Packers? I recommend we
>>should re-name them the Green Bay Metathesizers. Let's see what silly
>>headgear they can come up with then!
>>
>>dInIs
>>
>>>And if you drive through Montana, you will find "Hell-IN-uh" (Helena),
>>>"HAV-ur" (Havre), and "SHOAT-oe" (Choteau).
>>>
>>>Rebecca Meyer (originally from Hav-ur)
>>>San Diego
>>>
>>>---------------
>>>At 06:21 PM 99/12/03 -0600, you wrote:
>>>
>>>>Canada's policy of bilingualism is all very well, but it just doesn't
>>>>reach far enough to handle U.S. place names with French antecedents.
>>>[...]
>>>>So maybe you think you're being a "dumb Canuck", but whoever the dumbest
>>>>Cancuk may be, in all of Canada there's nobody dumb enough to beat an
>>>>ordinary Midwesterner when it comes to fancy mispronunciations.
>>>>
>>>>-- mike salovesh      <salovesh at niu.edu>      PEACE !!!
>>>>
>>>>
>>
>>
>>Dennis R. Preston
>>Department of Linguistics and Languages
>>Michigan State University
>>East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
>>preston at pilot.msu.edu
>>Office: (517)353-0740
>>Fax: (517)432-2736