The changes just keep on coming.

[Joel Shaver]

It helps when the orthography reflects the 'aw' pronunciation- as in
'Enumclaw...'  I'm from Eastern Washington (TRUE Eastern Washington--
Spokane area), and my friends and family always firmly pronounced the
'a.'  Imagine my horror when I started making friends who told me
they were from Yakim(schwa)...

I solemnly swear never to drink soda and to always insist on pop.

BTW- the original spelling for the Indian tribe is 'Yakama...'  Just
an interesting sidenote.

Joel Shaver
University of Glasgow
(Previously University of Washington)


On Oct 20, 2005, at 6:24 PM, Peter A. McGraw wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Peter A. McGraw" <pmcgraw at LINFIELD.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: The changes just keep on coming.
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---------
>
> On the topic of observed language evolution, though a totally
> different
> example:
>
> There are a number of Indian-derived place names around the
> Northwest that
> are (or were, in the good old days when people spoke correctly)
> pronounced
> with a final -aw.  The only examples that come to mind at the
> moment are
> Yakima, Washington, and the Umpqua River in Oregon, but there are
> others.
> I first noticed, to my annoyance, that transplants who had moved
> here to
> become local TV newscasters were pronouncing these names with a
> zero-stressed schwa on the end instead of the "correct" secondary-
> stressed
> -aw.
>
> I happened to think of this during a college trip with two
> colleagues of
> about my age and some students, and asked them how they pronounced
> the name
> of that city in Washington.  My contemporaries (both long-ago
> transplants)
> shared my -aw pronunciation, but the students (all of traditional
> student
> age, all from the Northwest) uniformly said "Yakimah" (same stress
> pattern).  So we seem to have a progression here, and no doubt the
> "dang
> furriner" TV newscasters will win out in the end.
>
> Peter Mc.
>
> --On Tuesday, October 18, 2005 2:50 PM -0400 Wilson Gray
> <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> wrote:
>
>


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"You cannot grow a beard in a moment of passion."
         -G. K. Chesterton  - "How I Met the President" Tremendous
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