Different dialects, same error

[Laurence Horn]

>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."
>
Funny.  I remember going through the steps of reasoning when I first
heard it.  It's one of those insidious tunes that I'm afraid will now
turn into an earworm for me for the next 48 hours--thanks a LOT,
Wilson  ;-)    As a New Yorker, I'm definitely in the group that
distinguishes -in- from -en-, unlike you and dInIs, and like your
friend, I was a bit puzzled about Windy as a name.  But that's
definitely what I heard, and unlike what happens when I'm listening
to those who neutralize, I really did hear it as Windy in the song
and not Wendy.  Finally, I decided that that was the point of the
song--everyone knows it's Windy.  Now to deal with that earworm...

Larry