Halloween pronunciation

[Beverly Flanigan]

This makes some sense, if you're a cot/caught merger; thus, 'hall' is
extended to 'hallow,' again with no understanding, presumably, of the
meaning of the word.  I'm sure there's no connection with the Spanishizing
of the two states' names, which, someone wrote here a few years ago, seems
to be an Eastern thing, right?  (Outsiders, as usual, get it wrong.)

At 03:33 PM 11/1/01 -0800, you wrote:
>I think it may be an analogy with 'hall' --and one of my students whom I
>just quizzed gave that explanantion. Of course, the word comes from "All
>Hallow E'en."  I don't think 'hallow' is pronounced as 'hollow.'  The
>American Heritage Dictionary gives only your pronunciation.
>I have also noticed in the news the pronunciations NevAHda and
>ColorAHdo.  I never heard these pronunciations growing up and my mother,
>aunts, and grandmother always said (and insisted upon) Colorado, rhyming
>with 'bad'.  One of my students who is from Colorado insists on rhyming
>with 'bad' and adds that 'everyone says that in Colorado.'
>Fritz
>
>
> >>> <pskuhlman at JUNO.COM> 11/01/01 09:24AM >>>
>When did everyone start calling it Holloween?  I pronounce the a as a
>short a.  I grew up in Illinois in the fifties and sixties and it always
>strikes my ear wrong to hear Holloween.
>
>Patricia Kuhlman
>Brooklyn, NY
>pskuhlman at juno.com


_____________________________________________
Beverly Olson Flanigan         Department of Linguistics
Ohio University                     Athens, OH  45701
Ph.: (740) 593-4568              Fax: (740) 593-2967
http://www.cats.ohiou.edu/linguistics/dept/flanigan.htm