the curious phonology of wisconsin

[Beverly Flanigan]

I heard the W state mentioned just the other day (on NPR or somewhere) as
"Wis-con-sin," and it sounded very strange to this Minnesotan's ears--at
the syllable break there seemed to be a glottal stop, not so?

Illinoise and De-Moinz are another matter, of course.  Even Minnesotans
sometimes say these, alas.

At 03:59 PM 11/28/2004, you wrote:
> From Arnold Zwicky:
>
>>....
>
>>3.  the Oregon Effect: in very frequent, familiar words (like "Oregon"
>>for Oregonians and "Wisconsin" for Wisconsinites), vowels with tertiary
>>stress tend to lose it, with concomitant vowel reduction and (where
>>appropriate) resyllabification; this is what gives the Wisconsinite
>>pronunciation of "Wisconsin". ....
>
>A very nice summary, thanks.
>
>I confess to having used the furriners' pronunciation of "Oregon" (with
>"-gon" like in "pentagon" etc.) in my youth. But I never used "Wiss-consin"
>.... or neither "Illinoise". I guess WI and IL were closer states and the
>names were more familiar. I don't suppose that it is claimed that (e.g.)
>residents of northern IL near the WI line universally use the outsiders'
>version?
>
>It is interesting that my RHUD gives the pronunciation /wIs kan s at n/ -- and
>speaks it so -- while my MW3 shows /w@ skan(t) s at n/ (with no other choice
>in either work).
>
>-- Doug Wilson