EITHER = EETHER or EYETHER?

[ANNE V. GILBERT]

To all:

> Given the high proportion of German ancestry in Milwaukee families, the
> way "either" is pronounced there might help confirm or deny my
> impression that Chicago EYEther was at least reinforced by German
> spelling pronunciation.  Does anybody know what the Standard Average
> Milwaukeean would be likely to say?  Is it EYEther or is it EEther?
>
> As you might expect, I use both pronunciations myself.

I think the "choice" of ee-ther/eye-ther, however it is derived, may have
something to do with aspiring to higher status.  Both my parents, who lived
most of their lives in the Pacific Northwest, went to school "back East". My
father was very specific about saying he "took up" the "eyether"
pronunciation because a professor he admired talked that way.  And my mother
was of a generation of women that "followed Daddy", so she took up the
pronunciation too.  I heard "eyether" exclusively until I started grade
school.  Since this was the Pacific Northwest, I heard "eether" in class and
on the playground.  It was a bit of a shock to me, but while my older sister
and brother retain "eyether"(why, I don't know), I ended up dropping the
"parental" pronunciation in favor of the more "normal" "eether"(at least
it's more "normal" around here).
Anne G