Local pronunciations

[ladye rudite]

There is a BERlin MD which stays that way in isolation also.  And people
from that city spelled Baltimore call it Ballmer.

V. Wood


>From: Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>Reply-To: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject: Re: Local pronunciations
>Date: Thu, 27 Oct 2005 13:22:43 -0400
>
>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>Subject:      Re: Local pronunciations
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>At 12:31 PM -0400 10/27/05, Wilson Gray wrote:
> >On 10/26/05, Damien Hall <halldj at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
> >  > I can add the following to the growing collection of local
> >pronunciations of
> >>  placenames which differ from that of the ur-placename:
> >>
> >>  - berLIN, Germany, but BERlin, CT and NH (cf also the
> >>stress-placement in the
> >>  phrases 'berLIN' (the city in Germany) but 'BERlin WALL')
> >>  - Newark, NJ = NEWark, like the English town, but Newark, DE =
> >>newARK, with two
> >>  primary stresses, as if it were still two words
> >>  - all the Welsh place-names in Greater Philadelphia, which are
>pronounced as
> >>  they would be if they were of English-language origin:  here the
> >>difference is
> >>  not one of stress but one of segment, so 'Gwynedd' has a /d/ at
> >>the end in PA
> >>  but an /eth/ (voiced interdental fricative) at the end in Wales;
> >>Bala Cynwyd
> >>  has completely different vowels in PA from those it has in Wales;  and
>of
> >>  course the famous Bryn Mawr, PA = /brIn ma:r/, but Bryn Mawr in
> >>Welsh = /brUn
> >>  maeUr/ or similar, I think.
> >>
> >>  Damien Hall
> >>  University of Pennsylvania
> >>
> >
> >There's also a BERlin in Massachusetts. Perhaps, if not for the wars,
> >BERlin would have  become the standard U.S. English pronunciation of
> >the name of the capital of Germany, since the BERlin WALL rule also
> >applies to yield BERlin, GERmany.
> >
> >-Wilson Gray
>
>I think there's a difference.  "BERlin GERmany"/"BERlin WALL" is an
>instance of the rhythm rule, but the city's name in isolation is
>still BerLIN.  But the Connecticut suburb of Hartford (and I assume
>the other U.S. Berlins) is BERlin in isolation, not just in the
>context of the BERlin TURNpike.  (Similarly for fourTEEN vs. FOURteen
>KIDS.)
>
>larry

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