I say "Lusitan-i-ay"

[Jonathan Lighter]

OED lists "Mundy" as one of many pre-18th C. spellings of "Monday." But, rather surprisingly, a corresponding reduction seems to be absent in all the other days of the week.

  Taken along with "wellady," this is rather suggestive that some such reduction already existed in Early ModE, but it appears to have been uncommon, poorly documented, or insufficiently noticed.  Take your pick.

  JL

Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OHIO.EDU> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Beverly Flanigan
Subject: Re: I say "Lusitan-i-ay"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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
> >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 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
>
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