EITHER = EETHER or EYETHER?

[Steve K.]

On Sat, 22 Jul 2000, Mike Salovesh wrote:

> Regardless of whether it is statistically accurate to say EYEther is the
> Chicago norm, it wouldn't be surprising to find a higher incidence of
> that variant in Chicago than elsewhere in the U.S. Regardless of
> ultimate origins, I am convinced that the propagation of the EYE variant
> was heavily influenced by German spelling pronunciations of texts
> written in English. Chicago had so large a proportion of German speakers
> in the past that German was the only language of instruction in some
> public schools, and the language of a variety of courses in many Chicago
> public schools. A German-leaning pronunciation would have been perfectly
> natural.

This makes a lot of sense to me, and I believe that German influence is
the reason for the Chicago/Milwaukee locution "Are you coming
with?" (which has largely fallen out of my everyday speech since I left
Chicago).


--- Steve K.