route

[Beverly Flanigan]

I don't know what part of Illinois Hastert is from, but 'rout' was pretty
much standard in Minnesota when I grew up (and still is, I believe).  I've
picked up 'root' (for both route and plant root) as a "learned"
pronunciation as I've moved south and east (St. Louis to Bloomington to
Athens)--partly register, partly a misplaced sense of "class," I suspect.

At 12:32 PM 6/24/02 -0400, you wrote:
>Yesterday on NPR, I heard House speaker Dennis Hastert (from Illinois) say
>that Amtrak could probably cut some of its money-losing routes -- pronounced
>"routs".
>
>Steve Boatti


_____________________________________________
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