quest for info/suggestions. re: dialects

[Dennis R. Preston]

Yeah, Don, not to mention Warsaw [varSHAva], Poznan [POZnañ], Gdansk
[gdañsk] and (my all-time favorite) Lodz [wooch].
What part of our cultural history would make it necessary to give French
pronunciation to (some) French items but none to any Polish ones? Go figure
(as if we didn't know).

dInIs (who has even heard Frenchified pronunciations of his homeland
cities, e.g. budaPEST - there are no 'pests" in "pesht" [it would be
"peszt" if it were "pest"], and Hungarian stress always falls on the first
syllable - [BUdapesht])


>It's interesting that whenever purists want to "put down" the
>Americanization of French-origin place names they cite Versailles.
>
>Why don't they complain about the American pronunciation of 'Paris'? (no
>response needed)
>
>DMLance
>
>----------
>>From: Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OAK.CATS.OHIOU.EDU>
>...>Date: Sun, Oct 3, 1999, 5:55 PM
>>
>>I am aware of the American pronunciation of Versailles; there's also one in
>>Indiana and one in Ohio.  But--since these cities aren't in France, why
>>should they be pronounced in French?
>...
>>At 06:41 PM 10/2/99 -0500, you wrote:
>>>In Kentucky the correct pronunciation is verr-sales--no one would recognize
>>>the French unless you found someone who had studied French.
>...
>>>From: Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OAK.CATS.OHIOU.EDU>
>...
>>>> Sorry--I don't get the joke.  Why Versailles as opposed to somewhere else?
>>>>
>>>> At 09:39 AM 10/2/99 -0500, you wrote:
>>>> >Send them on an errand to Versailles, KY--they'll never be heard from
>>>again.

Dennis R. Preston
Professor of Linguistics
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