City Names

[Dennis R. Preston]

Carol would have been really happy with guag-lee-are-dough; my favorite of
the things she  (really!) got was gua-duh-rotch-ee. Guy didn't make it past
the first few letters.

My all-time favorite name failure was Don Meredith's old Monday Night
Football pronunciation of Danny Abramowitz. (Of course, I didn't expect
ah-brah-MOW-veetch; Id'a been happy iwth uh-BRAM-o-witz.) But Don was
honest; he didn't have a clue, so he just said "Here's this new player
Danny Alphabets."

dInIs (whose fist public linguistic presentation included the word
"anaphora," which he rendered ann-uh-PHOR-uh - must of been thinkin of
Greek jugs)

dInIs >Just from what I've seen on t.v. news, most
>American-Italians with "gli" in their name seem to
>have have gone to "velar g" - syllable separation -
>"li".  I know I've heard this several times recently,
>but specific names escape me.
>
>JIM
>
>--- "Dennis R. Preston" <preston at PILOT.MSU.EDU> wrote:
>> 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
>>
>
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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