Folk Awareness oif Dialect

[Grant Barrett]

>> > Illinois has many foreign place names which are often anglicized, including
>> > the name of the state (el @n )YZ.
>>
>> I've never heard anyone from Illinois pronounce it with the the z on the
>> end. Many (including me) do say ell instead of ill for the first syllable
>> though, yes. I have heard non-Illinoisians say it with the z
>though.
>
>My next-door neighbor's family has lived in Marion, Illinois (near Carbondale) for
several
>generations, and he says El at noiz.  A sample of 1 isn't very large, but I'd be
surprised if
>he's the only one in his family to use this pronunciation.  There's NO evidence
that the
>speech of his friends in Columbia MO has had the slightest effect on his South
Midland
>vowel system, the el-, however, not being

I'd like to chime in and say that when I was a boy, and even now when I'm not paying
attention, I sometimes have said Illinoyz, particularly when I say the state name by
itself. I come from rural roots and I believe my father pronounces it that way. We
are both native Missourians, he generally from the southeast, me generally from
east-central.