place pronunciations (was RE: pizzeria pronunciation?)

Beverly Flanigan flanigan at OAK.CATS.OHIOU.EDU
Mon Nov 22 21:41:35 UTC 1999


Seriously though--I always tell my students to respect the local
pronunciation of place and family names--why not?  The notorious
mispronunciation around here is of a town named "Chauncey":  locals
pronounce it to rhyme with 'Nancy', while outsiders (students, mostly)
insist it "should be" rhymed with 'flaunt'.  When I ask them how they
pronounce "aunt," they start to get the point; showing a map of the
variable pronunciation of that word in England also helps.  However, where
to divide consonants in a word like "Wisconsin" is trickier; as a
Minnesotan, I share our neighbors' pronunciation, but this may be too hard
to "get one's tongue around" (as a guy in "American Tongues" says).

At 11:17 PM 11/21/99 -0500, you wrote:
>On Sunday, November 21, 1999, Amy Speed <speed at paradigmtech.com> wrote:
>I am
> >interested to know exactly who DOES decide on these matters of
> >pronunciation.
>
>Albert P. Fella, 82, of Okeechobee, Florida. He's hard of hearing, hates
>using the
>telephone and doesn't work on Sundays, but he's the best we have.
>
>--
>Grant Barrett
>gbarrett at americandialect.org



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