Local pronunciations

[Wilson Gray]

On 10/25/05, Mullins, Bill <Bill.Mullins at us.army.mil> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Mullins, Bill" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> Subject:      Re: Local pronunciations
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Lebanon, TN is LEBB-nun.  Arab, AL is AYE-rab.  And Fayetteville, TN is =
> FETT-vul.
>
>
> Well, here in Oregon, we have Lebanon, not to be confused with the =
> country, which is Lebanon. What's the diff, you ask? Well, the =
> stress--the city's last syllable is pronounced exactly as the last =
> syllable in the name of the state as pronounced by a Webfoot--Orygun =
> (more or less), hence
>  LEB uh nun (more or less).  If anyone here ever said Leb uh NON, I'd =
> know they were some furriner--probably would say Yaki muh and probably =
> even soda.
>

Lessee, now. There are Pitchburra (Pittsburg[sic]), Cahnak (Karnak),
?^mbl (Humble), and Po Dahtha (Port Arthur), all in Texas, and Cayro
(Cairo) in Illinois.

-Wilson Gray