CLEMatiS, cleMAHtis, cleMAYtis

[Beverly Flanigan]

In Minnesota we said peOHnies; in Ohio it's PEanies.  But here in
southeastern Ohio it's also "pineys", as in central (and presumably
southern?) Indiana.  My newspaper carrier stopped last year to ask me if
she could get some cuttings from my "pineys," and I paused an
embarrassingly long time before her meaning registered--even though I had
heard the term before.

At 05:08 PM 4/8/02 +0000, you wrote:
>Here in Central Indiana, it's [pai at ni], sometimes
>without the @ so it's just [paini].  I have no
>explanation for the diphthong, not even in the fact that
>a town north of here is called [piru] (Peru).
>
>Herb
> > Where I grew up in Oregon it was "cleMAtus" and "PE at nee"
> >
> > allen
> > maberry at u.washington.edu
> >
> > On Sun, 7 Apr 2002, James Smith wrote:
> >
> > > I grew up in Utah saying cle MA tus ("a" as in "hat").
> > >  I also learned pee O nee instead of PEE @ nee for
> > > peony.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --- "ANNE V. GILBERT" <avgilbert at PRODIGY.NET> wrote:
> > > > Bob:
> > > >
> > > > I grew up in the NC mountains, as did my mom who's
> > > > an avid gardener.  She's
> > > > always said CLEMatis in reference to that flowering
> > > > plant.  I imagine that
> > > > that's the same pronunciation she's heard in the
> > > > local garden club.  In
> > > > addition, her BS was a double major in science and
> > > > home economics.  I've
> > > > never asked her if she ran into clematis in the
> > > > classroom or lab, but I'll
> > > > quiz her when she gets back from the beach.
> > > >
> > > > Merriam-Webster Online features CLEMatis and
> > > > cleMATis among four different
> > > > pronunciations.
> > > >
> > > > Well, first off, I'll have to look in the friendly
> > > > local dictionary .  I
> > > > shoulda thought of that in the first place, but I
> > > > had too many other things
> > > > on my mind at the time. And second, I wonder if
> > > > these pronunciations *are*
> > > > regionally mediated(as well as perhaps age-mediated.
> > > >  I live in Seattle, and
> > > > as I said, I heard CLEMatis when I was growing up,
> > > > but a lot of people have
> > > > moved into Seattle from all over the place since
> > > > then and presumably brought
> > > > their pronunciations with them, so I'm
> > > > wondering. . . .
> > > > Anne G
> > > >
> > > >
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> > > James D. SMITH                 |If history teaches anything
> > > South SLC, UT                  |it is that we will be sued
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_____________________________________________
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