the curious phonology of Wisconsin

[Beverly Flanigan]

This Sotan says it the wI-skan-s at n way and finds it hard to split the /s/
and /k/ apart (the aspiration feels unnatural to me).  I wonder if the
original American Indian word might have something to do with it?  Are you
outsiders syllabifying the word artificially, maybe by analogy with mis-
and dis-?  Natives, and adopted natives, should know best!

Like Doug, I never thought about it--until my students in Ohio commented on
my pronunciation of the name.  (And I should be grading their papers right
now instead of writing this. . . .)

At 08:09 PM 11/21/2004 -0500, you wrote:
>>The syllable division
>>of the state name is
>>
>>wI - skan - s at n
>>
>>not wIs - con - s at n
>>
>>as the rest of us have it.
>
>I didn't notice anything odd when I moved to Wisconsin.
>
>AFAIK, I've always said /wI skan s at n/, although I grew up in Detroit. Never
>thought about it, though.
>
>I say /dI sk at rIdZ/ and /dI skard/ too, I guess, but /mIs k&lkjulejt/.
>
>I suppose if I read aloud the unfamiliar word "discalculate" I would say
>/dIs k&lkjulejt/.
>
>I say /mI stejk/ but /mIs trit/, I think.
>
>The /I/ is more schwa-like when it doesn't have the following /s/ in the
>same syllable, I think. I suppose my tendencies are quite conventional in
>these things?
>
>-- Doug Wilson