I say "Lusitan-i-ay"

[Beverly Flanigan]

And do we know that "Sunday" was not pronounced [s^ndi] by 1746?  Is there
evidence of variant spelling of the days as "Sundy," "Mondy," etc.?

At 10:58 AM 12/14/2006, you wrote:
>FWIW: For the ejaculatory first-cousin of "lackaday"--"welladay"--the OED
>attests "welady" (1592) and "welody" (1652, where it rhymes with "melody")
>as variant spellings.
>
>--Charlie
>___________________________________________________
>
>---- Original message ----
> >Date: Thu, 14 Dec 2006 06:30:32 -0800
> >From: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> >Subject: Re: I say "Lusitan-i-ay"
> >To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> >
> >
> >There's no historical justiification AFAIK for / I / in the syllable
> -day.  / i  / seems unlikely for 1746. "Canada" could have / i / in
> theory, but the probably wouldn't rhyme.And since "Lusitania" in the
> Arnold poem has to have [ e ] or something close to it to rhyme,
> >  / 'kAn at di / would be irrelevant to it and just make everything murkier
> and more complicated.
> >
> >  Than usual.
> >
> >  JL
> >
> >
> >Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU> wrote:
> >
> >Unless "lackaday" and "Canada" were both pronounced with final /i/ or
> /I/, like "holiday" in some dialects and "Sunday" (etc.) in most?
> >
> >--Charlie
> >__________________________________________
> >
> >---- Original message ----
> >>Date: Wed, 13 Dec 2006 14:58:46 -0800
> >>From: Jonathan Lighter
> >>Subject: Re: I say "Lusitan-i-ay"
> >>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> >>
> >>
> >>Here's a nearly parallel case from the mid 18th C.
> >>
> >> Lucy Terry Prince (1730-1821) is known as "America's first black
> poet"; she was of the generation just preceding the better known Phyllis
> Wheatley (1753-84). Her only known poem, written when she was fifteen or
> sixteen (and praised by a recent critic for its "radical use of direct
> speech") memorializes the victims of an Indian raid near Deerfield,
> Mass., in 1746. It comprises four eight-line rhyming stanzas. The final
> stanza is as follows:
> >>
> >> And had not her petticoats stopped her,
> >> The awful creatures had not catched her,
> >> Nor tommy hawked her on the head,
> >> And left her on the ground for dead.
> >> Young Samuel Allen, Oh lackaday!
> >> Was taken and carried to Canada.
> >>
> >> Though "stopped / catched" (most likely /kaCt/) prevents the argument
> from being quite airtight, surely /e/ is the pronunciation intended.
> >>
> >> JL
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org