Dueling dialects

[Wilson Gray]

On Aug 21, 2004, at 11:38 AM, Dennis R. Preston wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Dennis R. Preston" <preston at MSU.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Dueling dialects
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>> And one on the Ohio River in Southern Indiana pronounced "byew-nuh"
>> (or even "byew-nee" by a few old timers). They have also lost
>> contact with the origin of the town name (though not the meaning). A
>> place-name legend there has it that a local priest who knew Latin
>> (sic) looked out one day, saw what a pleasant view it was, and named
>> the town so (in Latin).
>
> dInIs

Hm. Maybe it was people from there who founded Buena "byew-nuh" Park,
California, where one would naturally expect "bway-nuh." On the other
hand, it's their pronouncing the town and street name San Pedro as
"saen pee-dro" and not as "saen/sahn pay-dro" that is the shibboleth
that distinguishes the real Angelenos from the tourists and other
newcomers. Well, that and the raising of /E/ to [I] before nasals. As a
classmate of mine once put it, "Why should I pronounce [E] before
nasals here [in phonetics class] hwIn I don't do it at home [in Santa
Rosa, CA]?" He was a good man, dInIs.

-Wilson Gray

>
>> In a message dated >  Fri, 20 Aug 2004 10:00:57 -0400,  David
>> Bergdahl <
>>> einstein at FROGNET.NET> writes
>>>
>>>  Ed (from SE PA/Philly) wrote:
>>>
>>>  No way, the classical 3-way distinction was: Mary [e],
>>>  merry [@], marry [ae]. Any other pronunciation is
>>>  barbaric :)
>>>
>>>  so merry = Murray??
>>>
>>>  4-way splitting David from Valley Stream, LI, NY
>>
>> Make that a five-way split (six ways if you include "Maury").
>>
>> Murray is the modern form of "Morey", an old Scottish name, best
>> known for
>> "The Bonny Earl of Morey" of  Lady Mondegreen fame.
>>
>> This datum, oddly enough, was told to me by an African-American woman
>> whose
>> surname is Murray, who admits that she is NOT related to the Bonny
>> Earl of
>> Morey but does consider him an honorary relative.
>>
>> The mention of "Blount" and /blunt/ reminds me of an anti-eye
>> pronunciation.
>> After the US victory at Buena Vista in the Mexican War (the battle
>> that made
>> Jefferson Davis's reputation and thereby led to the Northern victory
>> in the
>> Civil War), veterans in at least two states (Kentucky and New
>> Jersey) came home
>> and founded towns whose names are written as "Buena" but pronounced
>> /'boo
>> nuh/.
>>
>>      - Jim Landau
>
>
> --
> Dennis R. Preston
> University Distinguished Professor
> Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic,
>         Asian and African Languages
> Wells Hall A-740
> Michigan State University
> East Lansing, MI 48824-1027 USA
> Office: (517) 353-0740
> Fax: (517) 432-2736
>