On Campbells and camels

[Laurence Horn]

At 10:54 AM -0500 8/3/00, Jessie Emerson wrote:
>It's funny, because the first time I heard someone say Camelites, I asked
>"The nuns?"  (the North Alabama pronunciation of Carmelites being something
>like, although not exactly, /k at rm@laIts/).
>
>Jessie Emerson
>
>>  And if those Southerners were visiting Boston, any reference to those
>religious groups would be interpreted as a discussion of the order of
>sisters devoted to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, i.e. the Carmelites, no
>relation to the Scottish Presbyterians Thomas and Alexander Campbell.
>>
>  > larry

The one possible sticking point here (between at least the Boston (or
*a* Boston) pronunciation of "Carmelite" and the relevant Southern
pronunciation of "Campbellite", both putatively merging to
"Camelite", is the [ae] vowel, which I would guess is a bit longer in
the former case.  But in a context of discussing religious groups,
I'd imagine such a distinction might be ignored.

Larry