eggcorn/Utah speech

[Wilson Gray]

Fritz,  your anecdote reminds me of an anecdote. I once met a Dutch
woman whose name I heard as "Hanny." So, of course, I addressed her as
that. Some time later, I saw her name spelled out as "Henny." So,
naturally, I adjusted my pronunciation of her name in accordance with
the spelling. But a funny thing happened. For no reason at all, she
suddenly began to complain that I was mispronouncing her name. So, I
double-checked that I hadn't misapprehended the spelling. I hadn't. So,
where was the problem?

Well, it turned out that I had forgotten that I speak a dialect that
neutralizes /I/ and /E/ as /I/ before nasals. So, I thought that I was
saying H[E]nny, but I was actually saying H[I]]nny. On the other hand,
Dutch /E/ is almost as low as English [ae].  So, as long as I
pronounced her name as "H[ae]nny," that was okay with her. But she
couldn't abide hearing her name pronounced as "Hinny."

-Wilson Gray

On May 13, 2005, at 6:18 PM, FRITZ JUENGLING wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       FRITZ JUENGLING <juengling_fritz at SALKEIZ.K12.OR.US>
> Subject:      Re: eggcorn/Utah speech
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> There are several explanations for your wife never having heard of it:
> 1-- it's newe to Utah English since your wife left.  Highly improbable.
> 2-- She just doesn't have a 'good ear' and has never 'heard' it.
> Possible.
> 3--Most likely is that the i>I/ _ L is not a merger.  I had a Utah
> friend a number of years ago whose name was Peel (for me and everyone
> else in community  [pi:l]).  We all thought his name was Pill and
> called him that, to which he objected and corrected us, repeating
> [pIl]. I saw this episode play over and over again as he met new
> people.  After a while, I realized that Mr. Peel did not merge i and
> I. He certainly had laxing of i before L and it sounded like I.  To
> him, the distinction was as clear as day, but to every non-Utahn (and
> southern Idahoan), peel sounded like pill.  I finally got him to say
> both words and the distinction was ever so slight, but it was there.
> Probably your wife is just used to the slight distinction that the
> rest of us don't hear.
>
> BTW, I never 'heard' anyone say [pEn] for 'pen' until I was well into
> my 20s.
> Fritz J
>
>>>> stocklin at EARTHLINK.NET 05/12/05 02:20PM >>>
> At 1:20 PM -0700 5/11/05, Fritz Juengling wrote:
>
>> Here is an email that I received from our registrar--maybe it could
>> be added to some eggcorn list somewhere (reminds me of Utah speech):
>>
>> If you have any questions please fill free to ask away.
>
> My wife is a genuine Utahn, an actual great-great-granddaughter of
> Brigham Young, though not a practicing Mormon. And she swears she
> ain't never heard of this, or anything reminiscent.
>
> Though she says "playzhure" for "pleasure" (I've ALWAYS heard it as
> plehzhure, and I've lived in Chicago, Los Angeles, Oklahoma,
> Scottsdale & Boston) and "mayzhure" for measure" (mehzhure). While
> both pronunciations are in the online M-W, I'm curious if this has a
> socioeconomic, cultural or regional component, as in "aunt" (ant vs.
> ahnnt).
>
> You say roCOco, I say rocoCO....
> Lexy
> Fishers
>