Niagara Falls = "Niffles"

[Wilson Gray]

Not to mention that the "T" in _Booker T. Washington_ is supposedly
_Taliaferro_, pronounced "Tolliver." I've never made any attempt to
verify this claim, though I've believed it since I read it somewhere,
about 35 years ago.

And there's Allen Sillitoe [yes, I admit it: I thought that it was
"Silly Toe," for years, too], whose surname supposedly was originally
Italian and spelled "Sollito."

-Wilson

On 12/21/06, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Niagara Falls = "Niffles"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> The Taliaferros of Virginia allegedly pronounce it "Tolliver."
>
>   JL
>
> Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>   ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Wilson Gray
> Subject: Re: Niagara Falls = "Niffles"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Let's not diss Mario Pei, here. After all, 'twas he who, in addition
> to "sinjin," pointed out that _Chalmondelay_ is pronounced "chumly"
> and that _Mainwaring_ is pronounced "mannering." And it was Al Capp
> who pointed out that the spelling,_Chumly_, is pronounced
> "chalmondelay."
>
> -Wilson
>
> On 12/20/06, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> > Sender: American Dialect Society
> > Poster: Jonathan Lighter
> > Subject: Niagara Falls = "Niffles"
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > _Time_ (Dec. 2, 1929) printed this letter from Robert Withington of Northampton, Mass. :
> >
> > Sirs:
> > Mr. Gallagher's letter (TIME, Nov. 18, p. 8) suggests the story of the American who had been constantly corrected in his pronunciation of English proper names, until his patience was well-nigh exhausted: his English friend happening to refer to Niagara Falls, the American was prompt to correct him. "No, no," he said, "at home we pronounce it Niffles."
> > During the War it was an Englishman who said the Americans were worse than the English in the difference between spelling and pronunciation. "You spell it W-i-l-s-o-n and pronounce it 'House,'" he remarked.
> > Shades of Enroughly. . . .
> >
> > ROBERT WITHINGTON
> > Northampton, Mass.
> >
> > http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,738151,00.html
> >
> > A search shows that residents of N.F. still sometimes refer to it as "Niffles," though I didn't know that when HDAS II was being edited pre-Internet.
> >
> > The jest was undoubtedly further popularized by its appearance in the 1933 film, _The Secret of Madame Blanche_. Informed by Lionel Atwill that the English surname "Saint-John" (sic) is pronounced "Sinjin," Irene Dunne jokingly responds by referring to Niagara Falls as "Niffles."
> >
> > The movie is based on the 1923 Broadway play by Martin Brown. The play may contain the joke as well, but I haven't seen the script.
> >
> > JL
> >
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--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Sam'l Clemens

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