Cam(pb)ell

[Beverly Flanigan]

At 11:24 PM 8/3/00 -0500, you wrote:
>Back in 1958 when ZIP Codes first came in, I was living in a town of about
>3000 in West
>Texas (McCamey).  A friend of mine was named Richmond Campbell, and most
>of his friends
>called him Rich.  An acquaintance in Midland (where W is from, kind of)
>sent him a note
>and on the envelope drew a money bag and a camel and wrote 79752. A day or
>so later, the
>missive was placed in Richmond's PO box.
>I think I usually, maybe always, say the -b- in Campbell, and maybe always
>have, but I
>can't think of the religious groups as anything other than "Camelites"
>because that's the
>way Texas members of the group would say the name, though I'd probably say
>a slight -b-
>unless I were consciously imitating the "Camelites."
>DMLance
>
>Mark_Mandel at DRAGONSYS.COM wrote:
>
> > Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU> writes:
> >
> > >>>>>
> > extremely item-specific pronunciations are not unknown.  ann
> > daingerfield zwicky (and some of the people she grew up with in
> > lexington, kentucky) had "Campbell" pronounced the same as "camel",
> > while maintaining the [b] in "ramble", "Rambo", etc.  she used this
> > pronunciation for everyone named Campbell, whether or not they
> > themselves used it.  so it was "Camel's condensed soups", which
> > always struck me as perverse.  eventually one of her dearest friends
> > married a man named Campbell-with-a-b, and she made an exception
> > for bonnie and ed, her only ramble-Campbells.
> > <<<<<

Then there's my mother, who was such an extreme spelling-pronouncer that
she'd pronounce the word [kaempbEl].  When she asked for Campbell's
condensed soups in "the store," people did a double take.  She also
pronounced 'Louisville' with an [s] and 'Thomas' with theta--unless the
latter name referred to someone she knew first orally rather than through
writing.

_____________________________________________
Beverly Olson Flanigan         Department of Linguistics
Ohio University                     Athens, OH  45701
Ph.: (740) 593-4568              Fax: (740) 593-2967
http://www.cats.ohiou.edu/linguistics/dept/flanigan.htm