"effeminate speech", 1801

[Laurence Horn]

At 5:43 PM -0700 6/6/03, Towse wrote:
>John McChesney-Young wrote:
>>
>>  I quoted:
>>
>>  >>"Baden-Powell said that the name should be pronounced to rhyme with
>>  >>'maiden and noel'." (p. 18, n. 3) Unfortunately no source is cited.
>>
>>  and A. Murie asked the very reasonable question:
>>
>>  >Noel as in Noel Coward or as in The first Noel (with diaeresis on the e)?
>
>I was going to ask that same question, except I couldn't spell
>diaeresis.
>
>>  I'm sorry, yes, Gardner included a diaeresis over the e.
>
>po-well' then?
>
>Who'da guessed. Thanks all. That's a bit of trivia I'll needs
>must remember to drop at a party this weekend.
>
Actually, all the sources I found indicate it's PO- at l, with stress on
the "POE".  So for my idiolect not quite like either Noel (rhymes
with pole) Coward or the first No-WELL.  Of course, I could be wrong
about Noel Coward--maybe he was bi(syllabic) himself.

larry