Cold Mountain

[Beverly Flanigan]

Natalie, by 'ah' do you mean [a] or [ae]?  I interpreted '"broad" to mean
the low front vowel, as in "Addie" (perhaps a diminutive of Ada?).
                                                         Beverly Flanigan

At 05:34 PM 11/11/99 -0600, you wrote:
> > -Hey, Miss Ada Monroe, a voice called softly.
> >  Both names were pronounced in the ways that her father had hated. He had
> > never tired of setting people right on the matter: Broad initial A in Ada;
> > accented second syllable in Monroe, he would say. But over the summer, Ada
> > had given up trying to enforce her name against everyone's natural leaning,
> > and she was learning to be the Ada Monroe that the voice called. Long A,
> > heavy Mon.
> >
> > I understand the accent on 'roe' and 'Mon,' but this broad A is confusing.
>
>I assume that her father wanted her name to be pronounced ah-da monROE
>but that it was regularly pronounced ay-da [eda] MONroe.
>
> > And does the 'Long A" (sorry for the caps) mean [e]?
>
>That's my guess -- the lay usage of "length" -- the one from elementary
>school.
>
> >I'm hoping some
> > natives from the respective regions can shed light on this.
>
>I'm not from either SC or NC (though many of my ancestors were).  I don't
>think I've ever heard Ada pronounced ah-da.  Probably I have heard monROE
>pronounced MONroe, though I've heard the former far more often.
>    --Natalie Maynor (maynor at ra.msstate.edu)
>      Mississippian