Greenwich, strength

[Laurence Horn]

Daniel Ezra Johnson writes:
>>From: Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OAK.CATS.OHIOU.EDU>
>
>>Greenwich, England, is [grinwICH] Connecticut, but [grEnICH] Village,
>
>I have lived my whole life in New England and never heard [grinwICH] for the
>town in CT, but I found out from LANE that it _was_ the older pronunciation
>for that town (by the older speaker from that town).
>
>I think the British pronunciation [grEn..] has since triumphed.
>
And for some time.  My wife is from Old Greenwich, CT and I have a couple
of other old friends from Greenwich or O.G. and I've never heard any
pronunciation other than [grEnICH], as in the Village; my late
mother-in-law (b. 1916) and her friends all pronounced it that way as well.
I'd wager any instances of the "older" spelling must be quite old indeed.
As to Beverly's query on 'strenth' (and, presumably 'lenth')--

>But 'strenth' is a solidly entrenched regional pronunciation, I
>believe--where?

--I'm pretty sure I grew up (b. 1945, NYC) with that, at least as far as
the alveolar rather than velar nasal.  I'm not sure I can recall whether
the vowel was lax (as in TENTH) or tense (as in 'mAIN THing').

Larry