Different dialects, same error

[Wilson Gray]

Back in the day, there was a song titled "Wendy" by a group called "The
Association." During that time, I was living in Los Angeles, where I
had a white friend, a guy from Rantoul, IL, a village about 200 mi NE
of St. Louis. This friend liked the song so much that he had decided to
name his soon-to-be-born daughter "Wendy," after the song. And so he
did. However, he and I both had only heard the song. Neither of us
owned the 45. So, after bringing his wife and new baby home from the
hospital, he decided to commemorate the occasion by buying the record.

Imagine his surprise when he discovered that the title of the song was
really "Windy." Imagine my surprise when he told me this. Imagine my
further surprise when he told me that, had he but known, he would have
named his daughter "Windy" and not "Wendy."

Of course, for me, there's no distinction between /E/ and /I/ before
/m/ and /n/. They fall together as [I]. So, since "windy" is not
usually a person's name, I thought that I had heard "Wendy." My friend
did make the distinction. But he, too, knowing that "windy" is not
usually a person's name, likewise thought that he had heard "Wendy."

-Wilson Gray