Folk Awareness oif Dialect

[Drew Danielson]

Virginia also has a Buena /bjuna/ Vista, the pronunciation of which is
probably a nativism due to the fact that people have been calling it by
that pronunciation for about 120 years.  Ironically, there's a city
called Staunton not too far up the road from Buena Vista, but they
pronounce that name /stan t'n/ as in Elizabeth Cady Stanton, rather than
/stahn t'n/ as one would expect based on the spelling.  Maybe
Appalachian Virginians have some confusion over the phonetic value of
the letter U... :)

 - Drew

Robert Kelly wrote:
>
> 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
> >

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