Acme--two syllables or three? :)

[Wilson Gray]

On Jul 23, 2004, at 11:32 AM, Beverly Flanigan wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OHIO.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Acme--two syllables or three? :)
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>
> Interesting.  My father (born in MN,1900) also said "battries."  Is
> this
> common?

It's the regular BE pronunciation and,I suppose, also in other
Southern(-derived) dialects. (Not that I consider MN to be the location
of of a Southern-based dialect!)

-Wilson Gray

>
> At 08:03 AM 7/23/2004 -0700, you wrote:
>> Acme markets are also prominent in Philadelphia and
>> some people there use the three syllable
>> pronunciation. Growing up I associated it with old
>> people because my grandmother was the only I knew who
>> said it that way. Don't know how current it is.
>>
>> She also pronounced batteries (specifically the
>> plural--don't remember her ever using the singular) as
>> ''battries'' with two syllables.
>>
>> Ed
>>
>> --- Sam Clements <SClements at NEO.RR.COM> wrote:
>>> I live in Akron, Ohio.  I moved here in 1971.  I
>>> grew up in Arllington, VA. 1947-1964.  I also had
>>> connections to Danville, VA. 1945-1966.
>>>
>>> The word "Acme" is the name of a local supermarket
>>> chain in the Akron area.  It's been the hometown
>>> market since 1910 or so.
>>>
>>> I just noticed that some of my contemporaries, who
>>> were born and raise here in Akron pronounce the name
>>> of the market as
>>>
>>>     AK-a-me
>>>
>>> I'm sorry if I can't do it in the right kind of
>>> symbols/letters so that you can understand it
>>> better.  The accent is on the first syllable, and
>>> they pronounce it as if it has three syllables.
>>>
>>> Why do they say this?  Is it local to Ohio?
>>>
>>> As an addenda, two out of the three people who say
>>> it this way are college educated and Jewish.  I
>>> don't know if that's any help, but it's factual.
>>> All three are locally born.
>>>
>>> Sam Clements
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>