University abbrev. (and article usage with names)

[Mike Salovesh]

emckean at ENTERACT.COM wrote:
>
> I know I've said "The U. of C." pronounced as (forgive the sloppy system)
> "thuh yoo-uh see."
>
> If you say this fast enough, to someone from Chicago, they answer brightly
> "Oh? Circle?" (UIC, University of Illinois Chicago, which used to be
> called Circle campus. Many a fine linguist there in those days.)
>
> --Erin McKean
> editor at verbatimmag.com

Somehow I doubt that.  "Thuh yoo-uh see", in Chicago dialect, is The
University of Chicago.

Note the capital T, which the uninitiated attribute to hubris.  (I guess
people thought the capital was saying "The University", as if there were
no other.  In fact, that was exactly the attitude of many of its
denizens.)

It turns out that the capital T reflects the fact that the place was
legally incorporated as The University of Chicago.

There has also been a shift in local custom.  The U of C Manual of Style
no longer insists on "The", and lower case t has crept into many
contexts in what was formerly The University.  In a triumph of
traditionalism, The U. of C. Press still uses the capital in "Copyright
1999 by The University of Chicago Press".

Before anyone jumps on me for putting down the REAL U of C, let me point
out that I earned four degrees at The University of Chicago. I also was
a visiting grad student for a year at Berserkely.

Dennis Baron, writing from the OTHER University of Illinois, says

> oh, you mean navy pier?

He's at UIUC, which Chicagoans used to call the University of Illinois
at Chambana Urpaine.

Of course you're right, Dennis, UIC not only used to be called "Circle
Campus", it's the direct descendant of the two-year branch of the
University of Illinois at Navy Pier.   But folks at the University of
Illinois Chicago reject the "Circle Campus" tag and simply don't
remember the Navy Pier days.  The heyday of Navy Pier, as it was called,
was immediately after World War II, when the University of Illinois
simply had no room to accommodate all the veterans who wanted to use the
GI Bill in their home state.

-- mike salovesh                    <salovesh at niu.edu>
PEACE !!!