Folk Awareness oif Dialect

[Beverly Flanigan]

At 08:18 AM 12/5/00 -0800, you wrote:
><In Virginia we say "my ahnt lives in Stanton," while a typical yankee would
>say "my
>ant lives in Stahnton." Nobody is consistent, except maybe in Boston.>
>
>Phil replied: The city of Taunton is located 30-odd miles south of Boston.
Most Bostonians
>call the place "Tawnton" (as in "taunt"); the natives call it something like
>"Tahnton" (as in "aunt," which does not rhyme with "ant").
>
>I heartily second Phil. Aunt does not rhyme with ant in Tahnton. Also
located in the vicinity is Worcester, Mass, pronounced
>"Wooster", not like "Worchester" in England.
>
>Sharyn storknurse

But isn't "Worchester" also pronounced 'Wooster' [wUst at r]?  Again, spelling
changes with emigration, esp. if the early settlers are semi-literate;
their rough attempts at spelling heritage names then become standardized in
the new land.  We have a Wooster, Ohio too (whether [wUst at r] or [wust at r]
I'm not sure), and also a Glouster (either [glaust at r] or [glast at r].
Gloucester, England is pronounced [glaust at r] too, isn't it?