/ei/ ~ /i:/ in "Kean"

[Alice Faber]

Dale Coye said:
>Reagan
>Yeats
>great
>yea
>break
>steak
>
>I believe Tom pronounces his last name a la Irlandais
>

Exactly. There are still pockets in Ireland where reflexes of Middle
English /E:/ are /e(i)/ rather than /i/. John Harris and others have
written on this. I lived in the NY metro area for most of Kean's
governorship, and his name was always pronounced /e/.

--
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Alice Faber                                             faber at haskins.yale.edu
Haskins Laboratories                                  tel: (203) 865-6163 x258
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