EITHER = EETHER or EYETHER?

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

In a message dated 7/20/2000 5:16:17 AM, rtroike at U.ARIZONA.EDU writes:

<< I was surprised to hear Ron Butters call the /ay/ pronunciation of EITHER
"unpretentious">>

Sorry, I actually have the same perception as Troike, I just miswrote--what I
meant to say was

As I understand it, Coye's students found that the younger the speakers, the
more they preferred the "casual" form "try and"--BUT the more they preferred
(what I at least think of as) the MORE pretentious /ay/ pronunciation of
EITHER.

Steve's perception that the variable is a function of region is interesting.
In North Carolina my perception is that one hears only EETHER, often
proceeded by OR ("You can go to school or either you can stay in the bed all
day").

In a message dated 7/20/2000 1:17:27 AM, nyinstitute at VIABCP.COM writes:

<< Either/EYE/ther entered with Queen Victoria and other Germans, who had a

different (from traditional English) pronunciation for the "ei" (eye). When

the Queen spoke this way, others followed. >>

Queen Victoria a German? Huh? At any rate, I'd like to know the source of
this particular assertion--it seems unlikely that EYETHER is a spelling
pronunciation based on German, or that Victoria's pronunciation would have
had much affect in Hoboken. According to the OED there are very early English
spellings--well before the German royalty took over the English throne--that
indicate a great deal of variation in the pronunciation of the word,
including both /e/ (which becomes /i/ through the Great Vowel Shift) and
/ay/. Etymologically, EITHER is related to AYE + WHETHER, and the
pronunciation of AYE has nothing whatsoever to do with German.