Folk Awareness oif Dialect

[Robert Kelly]

add another component (to ignorance & nativism):  humor, folk or
otherwise.  Thirty years ago in California I heard Buena as /bjuna/,
Vallejo as Valley Joe (so stressed), Mesa as mee-sa, Palos as pale-os,
etc.  I was never sure my eastern leg wasnt being pulled, but I heard such
things too often for me to assume myself the victim of a Conspiracy of
Native Informants.

RK

On Mon, 4 Dec 2000, Ray Ott wrote:

> #14.  Here in IL, of course, with  our Cairo=Kay-ro and Marseilles=Mar-sales,
> etc.
> but everywhere in the Confederate Diaspora as well, I think.  The rigidly
> English pronunciation of non-English spellings (In CA one is beginning to
> hear such things as Buena Vista=Beeyuna Vista) springs from a determined
> Nativism rather than mere ignorance.
>
> Ray Ott
>