Geoduck (1882)>McLoughlin

[Jewls2u]

I am a native Seattlite and we have joked about pooeyallup since at least
the early 80's. It's an odd sounding word with a strange spelling that just
begs to be tinkered with.

Julienne

-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
Of FRITZ JUENGLING
Sent: Friday, November 08, 2002 8:05 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Geoduck (1882)>McLoughlin


Just 10 minutes ago I had a student in my room and somehow this town came up
in conversation.  She said her family was from 'pew-YAllup.'  I had never
heard that before and asked her to repeat it, and she clearly said
pew-YAllup.  I didn't get a chance to press her further, but maybe she has
just been gone from there for so long that she uses her own pronunciation.
But that does seem a bit odd--she would surely have heard the word spoken by
her parents.
Fritz

>>> maberry at U.WASHINGTON.EDU 11/08/02 07:55AM >>>
Yesterday Larry asked about the spelling of geoduck which would be a very
poor rendering of the pronunciation 'gooey-duck'. Well, I don't have an
answer but upon reflection but something similar has happened in the
Washington place name Puyallup, which pronounced PyuAllup not *PuYAllup
or *PUyallup, although the latter two might be expected from the spelling.

The place is named for the Puyallup Indians. The name was variously said
to mean "shadow from the dense shade of the forest" or was given to the
tribe because they were so generous, "pough" = "to pile up, to add more"
and "allup" means "people". (cf. Mazama magazine, Dec. 1918, p. 251)
If the latter is true, Puyallup is the only place name in the state which
contains the element -allup "people".

allen
maberry at u.washington.edu